How health care professionals can help level up inequalities: and it’s not magic!

Jonny Morris died in 1999. I think you will need to be of a certain age to recognise the name straight away. Like many people of my age, Jonny was an integral part of my childhood. He presented a TV programme called Animal Magic. It was a very successful children’s programme. He clocked up some 400 episodes between 1962 – 1983. Jonny was a great mimic and impersonator and used this skill to have conversations with the animals he was ‘caring for’ as a ‘zookeeper’. He was never a real zookeeper although the series was filmed at the world famous and one of the oldest zoos in the UK, the Bristol Zoo Gardens. The zoo has a well-earned reputation for conservation, and indeed Jonny was a long time environmentalist. Sadly, last week the zoo announced it was closing*. It had been open since 1836.

Jonny Morris talked to animals. He gave their responses in mimicked voiceovers. Some folk criticised this anthropomorphic approach, but as a young child I loved the way he appeared to be talking to, and with, animals. The show was truly magic to my young eyes. He went on to do other radio and TV shows, but it was Animal Magic that remained my favourite.  In 1990 he ‘lent’ his voice to a series of TV advertisements for what were then Electricity Boards, encouraging people to switch to electric heating and so on. Have a look here at one of them. The advertisements featured the  ‘Creature Comforts’ cast and were produced by the fabulous Nick Park and Aardman Animations. They, of course, at the same time, started to produce the wonderful Wallace and Gromit films.

Thinking about the life of Jonny Morris, a couple of things came to mind. Those electricity adverts possibly resonate more today than they would have done 30 years ago. Secondly, however much he planned his conversations with the animals, working with animals will always be unpredictable.

Here for example, he gets attacked by a gorilla. Trust, courage and a huge sense of self-confidence must have played a big part in what he was able to do with the animals.

Last week I was in conversation with someone else whom I have long thought of as courageous and self-confident. That was Michael Marmot. I have seen and heard him speak many times. He is a bit like Jonny Morris in that he can instantly engage with his audience. He uses data and evidence like J uses gas and electricity to keep herself warm – that is all the time. Michael Marmot is a fascinating speaker, and last week he took the opportunity to debunk some of the hype around the current ‘Levelling Up the United Kingdom’ White Paper. The UK government describes leveling up as: ‘Levelling up is a moral, social and economic programme for the whole of government. The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how we will spread opportunity more equally across the UK’. In his usual unique acerbic style, Marmot was not so confident – and I know who I trust more to give a truthful and evidence-based analysis of the facts and opportunities facing our communities.

Now as regular readers of this blog know, I try and steer clear of politics in my posts. However, Michael Marmot produced some compelling evidence that revealed the reality of the levelling up agenda. He noted that in the 10 years following 2010, the UK entered a long period of austerity. Many have argued, as do I, that austerity was a political choice, not a necessity. Public sector expenditure fell, and in particular cuts to local government had a huge impact upon health and health and inequalities. Indeed, the more deprived the area, the steeper the cuts were. Cuts to local government in the North have been calculated as being equivalent to around £413 less per person. Contrast that with 2021 levelling up fund allocations, which in the North amount to just £32 per person.

It would probably be wrong of me to use the example of what the Bromsgrove allocation was compared to Blackburn's. You can look it up for yourself, but it’s a rather large difference. And we all probably know who the MP for Bromsgrove is.

The consequence of the 10 years of austerity for people living in different parts of England are equally stark. Marmot and his team’s research showed that the life expectancy for people living in the North, fell, whilst years spent in ill health increased. You can reacquaint yourself with his research outcomes here. I know whose analysis of the facts I trust. And that’s the rub. The Levelling Up White Paper is written as if it isn’t the result of a political party that has been in power for 30 of the last 43 years. They should not escape responsibility for the increased inequalities across all aspects of people’s lives. It will be through addressing the well-understood social determinants of health that will have the biggest impact on reducing the inequalities gap. Whilst much can be done at a local level, and I’m all for place-based care, actually it’s national policy that has the ability to bring about real change. And we don’t need to rely upon magic to make that happen.

Nursing, medicine and many other health care professions have been consistently recognised as being the top professions that most people rate highest when it comes to truth, honesty and trust. Back in September 2021, Michael Marmot addressed a conference of the Royal College of Nursing. In his keynote presentation Marmot said: ‘Nursing staff are the most trusted group of people in Britain, and rightly so, from that position of trust, if nurses speak up about food insecurity, housing, decent public services, they will be listened to. As a group, nursing staff can play a very important role in changing society’ – I agree.

We can do so at that political level – we all have MPs – write to them, tell them what contemporary health care practice is about. I write to my MP on a regular basis and I think the tone of his responses have started to change for the better. As a whole, health care professionals can be a powerful force for good. It doesn’t take magic. We just need to use the trust others have in us, our self-confidence as a profession and the courage of our convictions. Collectively we can make positive change happen.

 

* The Bristol Zoological Society said Bristol Zoo Gardens in Clifton will shut permanently on September 3rd. It is moving to the site of the society’s wildlife park, the Wild Place Project, in South Gloucestershire. Since it first opened, the zoo has received an estimated 90 million visitors and helped save 175 species from extinction through its conservation programmes.