About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the role of healthcare policy in shaping inequalities in the UK, focusing in particular on: (i) Julian Tudor Hart’s notion of the “inverse care law” – that where the need for healthcare is greatest, NHS provision is lowest – considering examples such as access to GP services and COVID-19 vaccination rates; (ii) the inverse equity hypothesis – that new medical technologies worsen inequality in the short term; (iii) the impacts of marketisation and privatisation within healthcare; (iv) the impacts of austerity on health inequalities.

About the lecturer

Professor Clare Bambra is Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University. She is a renowned expert in the field of health inequalities, and she has recently undertaken extensive research into the unequal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including leading SAGE’s independent report into this. Her recent publications include The Unequal Pandemic: COVID-19 and Health Inequalities (2021, co-author), Health in Hard Times: Austerity and Health Inequalities (2019, editor), and Health Divides: Where You Live Can Kill You (2016).