The government proposes to continue supporting the provision of needle exchange schemes to reduce harms associated with injecting drug use.1 In particular, young injecting drug users (IDUs) have been found to be at higher risk of acquiring HIV infection.2 Injecting drug use and HIV are also common in prisons.2 Evidence …
“Plain packaging” (also known as generic, standardised or homogenous packaging) means that all logos, graphics, and colours are removed from cigarette packs. Only the brand name of the tobacco company can remain – written in a simple, standard font which would be the same for all brands. The pack itself …
Health care systems around the world face the challenge of trying to continuously improve care quality. Market reforms, encouraging competition between providers such as hospitals, have been promoted as one way of achieving this. The Health and Social Care Bill, published in January 2011, sets out a comprehensive system for …
The Health and Social Care Bill sets out how groups of General Practitioners (GPs), known as commissioning consortia, will be given real budgets to commission care on behalf of patients in their local communities.1 Commissioning has been described as ‘the process of assessing the health needs of a population, then …
The 2008 government white paper, Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives; A cross-government strategy for England1 set out the ambition that ‘by 2020 we will have reduced the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels’. The strategy included a commitment to support local areas in commissioning weight management services for …
Lancet UK Policy Matters is a website that aims to provide information to the public, professionals and policy makers about the evidence of how policies affect health. The UK is undergoing a period of significant policy change from reforms to the national health service in England to much broader areas …
The Policy Summaries on this site have been been prepared by Public Health Specialty Registrars1 and others with general knowledge of the field of public health2. The summaries are written by interested individuals with general knowledge of the public health field who have applied skills in assessing and summarising evidence. …
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This project is a collaboration between The Lancet and a team of public health registrars1 in England. You can find out more about the team below. Rob Aldridge Rob is a speciality registrar in public health and NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at University College London. Rob’s research at the Centre …