Top doctor says health inequality is country’s ‘biggest issue’

Health inequalities are the biggest issue facing Scotland today, the country’s top doctor has warned.

Chief Medical Officer for Scotland Sir Harry Burns said inequalities are “astonishingly complex” and MSPs and others must show the political will to deliver consistent and nationally-scaled solutions to make a difference over the coming decade.

Sir Harry was at Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee to give evidence to MSPs on a recent report into health inequalities by Audit Scotland.

The report found that despite general improvements in the health of the nation, deep-seated differences remain between the least and most deprived communities.

He told the committee the report would have been “helpful” if it had come out 20 years ago, but that it did not pay much attention to the “complex science” underlying inequalities.

He said: “For me, health inequalities are the biggest issue facing Scotland just now, because not only are health inequalities a problem, but they are a manifestation of social inequalities and social disintegration that drives things that we would like to be different in Scotland.”