Let’s get tough on the causes of health inequality

In an excellent article in this week's BMJ, Iona Heath, A GP in London, says "the UK government has a clearly stated commitment to tackling health inequalities, while perversely allowing disparities in wealth to widen. The problem is that health inequality is directly related to socioeconomic inequality and cannot be separated from its underlying cause or solved independently. It is convenient for governments to believe that this can be done but the medical profession should not collude with them." This is no less true in the USA.[BMJ, 23 JUNE 2007; Volume 334, p 1301]