Member News
By Richard Chidwick - 2nd July 2010
The Department of Health has failed to provide value for money, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
The report from the NAO criticises the department for being "slow to take action" to reduce health inequalities.
The damning verdict comes despite "serious attempts" by the department to confront health inequalities in England, the NAO concluded that the department took too much time to respond to targets set in 2000.
Commenting on the report, NAO chief Amyas Morse said: "The Department of Health has made a concerted effort to tackle a very difficult and long-standing problem.
"However, it was slow to take action and health inequalities were not a top priority for the NHS until 2006.
"We recognize that this is a very complicated issue and that it took time to develop an evidence base.
The report does mention the recent improvement by the department to adhere to these interventions.
"However, the best, cost-effective interventions have been identified and now must be employed on a larger scale in order to have a greater impact and improve value for money,” said Morse
"The department should target its efforts on the most deprived areas of the country and develop costed proposals to maintain or increase investment in preventative interventions to tackle the conditions which lead to health inequalities" he added.
One method to adopt reduce costs was to address life expectancy, which has increased by raising the amount of blood pressure treatment, reduce cholesterol and improve anti smoking clinics.
Despite the apparent progress these measures have still not been adopted on a wide enough scale.
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