7. Plaid Cymru Debate: Health inequalities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:19 pm on 12 January 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 5:19, 12 January 2022

Thanks very much, Jenny, and you are absolutely right: I think that midwives are very key, and health visitors are key, particularly in those early years. I think that we have got to take every opportunity to make every contact count, to make sure—. We know that we are managing to vaccinate children—about 90 to 95 per cent of children come for vaccination—but what an opportunity to talk to them about how to make sure that your child is developing properly, eating the right food, and making sure that they are getting the right exercise. I think that there is room to be more creative in that space, and that's certainly something that I've been talking to my officials about—how we can make sure that every contact counts.

But, as mentioned, I think COVID-19 has been cruel and it's been unequal in the way that it's affected our population, with all the more vulnerable people with pre-existing health conditions, such as obesity, being at far greater risk of severe disease. In this sense, COVID-19 has highlighted even further the crucial importance of public health prevention work in tackling health inequalities. So, we know, don't we, that obesity and smoking have an enormous impact on people's life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, and that people who are from those most deprived communities are more likely to be obese or to smoke than those in the least deprived communities. And that's why tackling health inequalities is at the core of our proposals to tackle obesity and to support people to stop smoking. So, alongside my colleague the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being, we're committing over £13 million of funding to our forthcoming 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' programme to tackle obesity, with actions to reduce diet and health inequalities across the population at its core. And on smoking, Members may be aware that we recently published our draft tobacco control strategy for Wales for consultation, and in recognition of the health inequalities that arise as a result of smoking, tackling inequality is noted as one of the draft strategy's central themes.