The Midlands Decision Support Network in association with The Strategy Unit are hosting INSIGHT 2022 our annual festival of learning and sharing events for the NHS, local government and other partners across health and care.

Our research, published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe, highlights substantial inequities in access to elective hip replacement surgery. We found no evidence that these inequities reduced between 2006 and 2016.

With general practice appointments hitting the highest numbers on record (34.8 million in England alone in November 2021), careful organisation and planning for patient appointments is increasingly important.

The UK is running its largest ever vaccination programme. The stakes are enormous. Ending lockdown, reopening schools and large parts of the economy, allowing social contact: so much depends on the NHS’ ability to deliver.

We know that patterns of access to healthcare have changed during the pandemic. We know this will affect people’s health. And we also know that this will be unevenly felt. The more precisely we can analyse these problems, the better our ability to respond appropriately.

Our analysis of access to emergency departments (ED) during ‘Lockdown 1’ contributes to this evidence base. It shows that there was a radical fall in activity, but that this was concentrated in specific ethnic, age and diagnostic groups.