Boris Johnson’s vision for tackling health inequalities in the capital is at risk of being sidelined unless he clearly sets out his priorities and the initiatives he will take forward to help achieve them. While Health and Public Services Committee welcomes the publication of the Mayor’s draft health inequalities strategy, it warns in its response that partners will find it hard to determine their own priorities when it is unclear what the Mayor and the GLA group will be doing.

The Committee says the Mayor should also provide details of how he will bring together local partners and break down organisational ‘silos’ as part of the strategy delivery plan.

The Committee makes recommendations to maximise the impact and effectiveness of the draft strategy:

• The Mayor must set firm targets for the GLA and its functional bodies for how they will tackle health inequalities and deliver their proposed actions
• Funding arrangements should take into account the capacity of smaller community groups to bid for money
• The Mayor must raise the profile of work to tackle health inequalities amongst London partners.

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/health.jsp

Policy Issues

Swine flu  

The ABI has reassured consumers that pandemic illness, including swine flu, is covered by travel insurers who are members of the ABI. Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, said:  

“While the outbreak of swine flu is causing concern, people should not overreact or panic and travel insurance is there to help. Travel insurance will usually cover the cost if a holiday is cancelled because someone is too ill to travel. It will also cover the cost of medical treatment abroad and any associated delays caused by getting an illness on holiday.”  

People who are diagnosed with swine flu through the National Pandemic Flu Service will be able to use documentation received though it in order to validate insurance claims for cancelled holidays.  

Full details of the ABI’s information to consumers can be found here: 

Pensioner poverty  

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee issued a report highlighting the need to tackle pensioner poverty, calling for action in a variety of areas. The ABI agrees that more needs to be done to increase retirement income, in particular by promoting the need to save in a pension during people’s working lives. Responding to the report, the ABI said:  

"The Committee is right to highlight the urgent need to improve retirement income. As life expectancy increases, this problem will only get worse unless action is taken. Encouraging more people to save more for their retirement is essential, and the introduction of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions from 2012 should help. But we believe that automatic enrolment should be allowed before 2012 if employers want to offer it, and we urge the Government to make this happen."  

The report can be accessed from the Committee’s web site, here:   

http://www.abi.org.uk/Information/Policy_Issues/Policy_Issues.aspx