Tackling Health Inequalities

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:44 pm on 16 February 2006.

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Photo of David Taylor David Taylor Labour, North West Leicestershire 2:44, 16 February 2006

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for giving way. One of the proudest achievements of our Government since 1997 is the establishment of the post of Minister with responsibility for public health, and a very successful one we have today, particularly in view of what happened earlier this week.

My hon. Friend has outlined a number of the significant gaps—between urban and rural areas, social classes, age groups, geographical areas and so on—but perhaps one of the most fundamental is a man-woman split. Will she say a little about the inequality that exists there in terms not only of the natural tendency of the male not necessarily to report or monitor his own health, but in some of the most fundamental diseases of all? An awful lot of investment has rightly gone into breast cancer, but less has gone into testicular and prostate cancer, where the outcomes for that extra £5 million, £10 million or £15 million would be even better. This is a difficult one, but what is she doing about it?