The Health Foundation podcast

We all need care at some point in our lives – when we’re young, when we’re ill and when we grow older. And caring calls for many of the qualities at the very core of what it is to be human: empathy, compassion, selflessness and commitment. And yet care is so often undervalued, skimped on, commoditised or ignored. Examples of that indifference are everywhere: at home, in the NHS and in social care. And just at a time when the need for care is growing fast, many commentators feel that we have is a ‘crisis of care’. Why is that? And what can be done about it? In the latest episode of our podcast, our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon discusses this issue with: Madeleine Bunting – prizewinning author, broadcaster, and former Guardian journalist. In 2020, she released the book Labours of love: The crisis of care Professor Dame Anne Marie Rafferty – Professor of Nursing Policy, King’s College London, and currently President of the Royal College of Nursing. Useful links: Labours of love: The crisis of care Listen to Jeremy Hunt's comments on care in our first podcast episode Find out more about the Health Foundation podcast

Life expectancy is a key indicator of our health and wellbeing. Across most OECD countries in the last ten years, life expectancy has been stalling – and stalling most in the US and the UK. Last March, Professors Anne Case and Angus Deaton, two distinguished economists from Princeton University, published what became the must-read book of the year. That book was called Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. It showed that health has deteriorated fastest in middle-aged white Americans, and that in this population, death rates from all causes are actually rising. The biggest increases were in deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol driven by a lack of opportunity, growing inequalities, and bleak social and economic outlook. The so-called ‘deaths of despair’. In the meantime, here in the UK, The Marmot Review: 10 Years On was published last February looking at national health trends in England. The review revealed stalling growth in life expectancy nationally – and a reversal among people living in the poorer areas of England, in particular women. Is this due to the public spending cuts of recent years, or a long-term structural trend? What needs to be done? And might the pandemic accelerate solutions? In this episode, our Chief Executive Dr Jennifer Dixon is joined by two expert guests: Professor Sir Angus Deaton, co-author of Deaths of Despair, and Emeritus Professor of Economics at Princeton University. Professor Deaton was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2015. Sarah O’Connor, Employment Columnist for the Financial Times. Useful links: The Health Foundation's COVID-19 impact inquiry Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism Jennifer's book review of Deaths of Despair for Political Quarterly The Marmot Review: 10 Years On Left behind: can anyone save the towns the economy forgot? Find out more about the Health Foundation podcast Recommended reading: White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Janesville: An American story The Tyranny of Merit American Overdose. The opioid tragedy in three acts The Road to Somewhere. The New Tribes Shaping British Politics 

What happens when the emergency phase of COVID is over? Has the pandemic set health and social care on a new course or will most things snap back to the way they were before?  In a global emergency we have to deal with the short term first, but what’s the long-term path for the NHS in particular? And what are the deeper threats and opportunities we should be thinking about? In this episode, our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon is joined by two expert guests: Nick Timmins, author and former public policy editor at the Financial Times, and currently Senior Policy Fellow at The King’s Fund Dame Jackie Daniel, Chief Executive of Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Useful links: Watch Surviving COVID: Behind each statistic lies a human story short film Find out more about the Health Foundation podcast

Obesity in the UK is on the up. Prevalence of obesity is higher in more deprived communities, and obesity is linked to a range of health conditions – as well as increasing a person’s risk from COVID-19.   Evidence tells us that communities, government policies, commercial influences, and many other factors shape our ability to be healthy – but people often think it’s up to individuals to manage their own weight. Some governments are squeamish about intervention in people’s lives leading to a so-called ‘nanny state’. However, recent polling by Ipsos MORI for the Health Foundation shows that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way that people in the UK view the government’s role in improving our health.  So what should the Government be doing to tackle obesity? Useful links: July 2020 Ipsos MORI polling for the Health Foundation on Public perceptions of health and social care in light of COVID-19 Find out more about the Health Foundation podcast Find out more about Whose Health Is It, Anyway? by Dame Sally Davies and Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard

The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP talks to Health Foundation chief executive Dr Jennifer Dixon about his tenure as the longest-serving health secretary. They are joined by award-winning author Nicholas Timmins, writer of the Health Foundation book, Glaziers and window breakers, which includes interviews with 11 former health secretaries together with original analysis. A new edition of the book, featuring the full interview with Jeremy Hunt, is now available to download, read online or order. Useful links: Download or order a free hard copy of Glaziers and window breakers Find out more about the Health Foundation podcast