No abstract

A race equality observatory is needed to provide leadership and data

Brexit and the troubled state of the NHS call for re-thinking the UK's approach to health. The EU referendum vote reveals deep social divisions as well as presenting the country with important decisions and negotiations about the future. At the same time, health problems are growing; the NHS faces severe financial constraints and appears to lurch from crisis to crisis, with leaving the European Union likely to exacerbate many problems including staffing issues across the whole sector. However, new scientific developments and digital technology offer societies everywhere massive and unprecedented opportunities for improving health. It is vital for the country that the NHS is able to adopt these discoveries and see them translated into improved patient care and population health, but also that the UK benefits from its capabilities and strengths in these areas.

A call for papers for a special theme issue of The BMJ

incoming chair, NHS Confederation, Mala Rao professor, Imperial College London Ethnic minority doctors and patients still face too many injustices in the NHS. The BMJ's special issue on racism in medicine (bmj.com/racism-in-medicine) maps some of them and asks how they might be overcome, from the fivefold higher maternal mortality among black women than among white women in the UK (

Homelessness is a neon sign that something is fundamentally wrong

The growing consensus in the UK is that offenders with mental health disorders should be diverted away from custody and into alternatives. Victor Adebowale makes suggestions for a more coherent policy of diversion. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Public Policy Research (c) 2010 ippr.

No abstract