Closing the health gap.

One way of characterising the good society is one that has achieved a high degree of health equity. For a low-income country, one route to this achievement is to increase national income. But other features of society come to the fore, for low, middle and high-income societies alike. In England, my review of health inequalities highlighted: good early child development, education and life long learning, employment and working conditions, having enough income to lead a healthy life, healthy and sustainable places to live and work, taking a social determinants approach to prevention. Taking action on these requires commitment and cross-government action.