The New Statesman & Pfizer Policy Forum

Forthcoming events

Previous events

Understanding the changing face of primary care

3 November 2008

The traditional roles of general practitioners and pharmacists in the UK are changing. Pharmacies are being encouraged to evolve into centres that promote healthy living and provide an improved range of clinical services, while still maintaining their traditional role of dispensing medicines.

Management of outpatients is increasingly shifting from secondary to primary care, and “polyclinics”, providing a much wider range of services than is currently provided by most GP practices, are being planned for some parts of the country. The increasing role of online pharmacy in medicines delivery is further affecting the equilibrium of traditional roles.

This reassessment of roles and responsibilities is highlighting tensions and inequalities in the system and begs the question of how patients will understand all this complexity...

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Biotech Britain: Realising the impossible

12 May 2008

Biotechnology is the use of biological systems and living organisms, or their derivatives, to make or modify products or processes. While its use is commonly understood to refer to genetic engineering, the use of biotechnology currently has four main fields of application: medicine and healthcare, agriculture and food production, industrial (for example, enzymes as catalysts) and the environment.

This round-table discussion, sponsored jointly by the New Statesman and Pfizer, invited participants to examine the state of the biotechnology industry in this country.

Participants talk about their experiences of working as scientists and business managers. They attempt to identify the financial conditions and the sort of management that we need to build on the status that the industry has achieved in Europe, so that it can compete worldwide.

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World-class strategy for cancer

6 December 2007
House of Commons

Participants in this recent Policy Forum discussion, a collaboration between the New Statesman and Pfizer, discussed the progress that may be expected on the newly released Cancer Reform Strategy and that of its predecessor, the 2000 Cancer Plan.

Between the publication of these two documents, many new drug therapies became available – expensive therapies that have led to disparities between primary care trusts about patients’ eligibility for them.

The discussion centred on the issues of what we need to do on prevention, early diagnosis, better treatment, living with and beyond cancer, and the whole new survivorship agenda.

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Health and the Third Sector

28 June 2007

The UK has a vibrant and highly valued voluntary and community sector that has a long and distinguished history in health and social care. The Third Sector provides a wide range of support to patients, carers and health service professionals. Support that ranges from the provision of information and delivery of services, to raising awareness, promotion of service standards and influencing public policy.

This policy forum will bring together around a dozen leading figures from the 3rd Sector, politics, the health services, industry and academia to discuss:

1. What is the need for the 3rd Sector in supporting health promotion and healthcare across the UK, with a particular emphasis on reducing health inequalities?
2. How is the 3rd Sector evolving in response to our rapidly changing health services?
3. What is the role of public policy in supporting the 3rd sector and how should it evolve going forward?

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Can we Afford Medical Progress?

11 June 2007


The challenges presented by an NHS that seeks to manage the wellness of an increasingly "healthy" population.
Almost 60 years after its creation, the NHS is at a crossroads. Although investment in research is at an all time high, new medical innovations are being developed at a rate that the NHS can barely, if at all, afford. It is expected that the next generation of medicines will be more effective but target smaller patient populations. And, in wider medical care the trends are the same – more personalised, higher quality care with better outcomes. But such advances will come at a cost.

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Addiction - Can society break the cycle of dependence?

21 May 2007


In the UK, one in three people suffer from an addiction. Characterised by the repeated use of substances or behaviours, despite clear evidence that they lead to ill health, addictions pervade all aspects of society.
Sarah Mukherjee the BBC Environmental Correspondent will chair the New Statesman Pfizer Roundtable on the state of addiction in society and the role of public policy in addressing this challenge. The forum will bring together leading experts and policy makers including Caroline Flint MP, Minister of State for Public Health.

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Devolution in practice: health policy

29 Jan 2007


This summit brought together around 30 senior healthcare policy-makers and experts to discuss the impact of devolution on health policy and practice across the UK. Six years after devolution, the four countries have developed increasingly divergent health policies. Policy-makers were asked to consider the drivers that have shaped these divergent policy directions; the impact they are having on public health and health service performance; and the big healthcare questions for each country – and the UK as a whole. Did they consider that the right steps are underway to meet our needs? If not, what should we be doing?
The summit was divided into three sessions:
1. Devolution & healthcare
2. Innovation & inequality
3. Long-term devolved care

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Healthcare, wellness and disease - a European perspective

20 July 2006
House of Commons

Each time the European Union enlarges its populations become increasingly diverse and the challenge of setting appropriate health service priorities becomes greater. The differing health profiles of the national communities within the Union, coupled with the consequences of oft-mentioned trends such as obesity and longevity, mean that national healthcare systems are under enormous strain - a situation that we are familiar with here in the UK. How do other European nations tackle these issues? Do we all regard training and research in the same way?

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The future of Medicine - to infinity and beyond

11 May 2006
House of Commons

The discussion will explore the issues and challenges arising from the accelerating advances in medicine and related fields. It is not intended to focus on the ethics of the various advances so much as issues like affordability, priorities, potentials and relevance. For example will new techniques of drug discovery and diagnostics, arising in part from the genome project, present the "next big thing" or will frontier research for regeneration of damaged spinal and optic nerves? As we unravel further the secrets of the immune and endocrine systems and the control of cell growth, repair and death, novel therapies are emerging for many forms of cancer, AIDS, Diabetes and Crohn’s Disease. From these and other fields of research and the whole panoply of discovery there are further implications for the control of ageing and lifespan. Xeno-transplantation, nano-technologies and robotics - all warrant wider attention, not least from those involved in public policy and debate.

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Counterfeit Culture

3 May 2006
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Council Chamber

This New Statesman round table discussion, in association with Pfizer, examined counterfeiting and theft of intellectual property. Counterfeiting and piracy has increased dramatically over the last 30 years. Consumers have built sophisticated arguments to justify their actions but few realise the real impact they can have on organised crime and terrorism. More frightening, perhaps, is the World Health Organisation's estimate that 10 per cent of the medicines available to people worldwide are counterfeits; this trade is worth £30bn. Participants discussed the effect this crime has on society and the sort of global intelligence needed to deal with it.

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Marketing Public Health

16 February 2006
London

On 16 February, the New Statesman and Pfizer hosted a debate on how public health could be marketed more effectively. The representatives from healthcare, food and sport who took part all felt that this was an exciting time for public health, and especially that the 2012 Olympics offered a unique opportunity to change public behaviour. But there were concerns as to how such chances could be exploited to achieve sustainable long-term changes. The participants advocated better targeted programmes that work across sectors instead of isolated advertising campaigns and government control. The public wants change but people need to feel they are part of that process instead of being lectured to. Only then will healthy living be as normal as brushing your teeth.

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Innovative Britain

21 December 2005
The Wellcome Trust, London

Making Britain a centre for innovation and new technology has been a recurrent theme of speeches by the Chancellor and Prime Minister and a long standing concern for the DTI and the business community. The benefits are clear - creating exciting jobs and economic growth and securing a place for Britain at the forefront of the rapidly-changing and competitve global economy. And the UK has many strengths to build on - not least a strong science base and world-leading creative industries.

However, in the UK, science and technology are widely portrayed as difficult and dull, and linked to out-dated manufacturing industries and job losses. Government can tinker with the science curriculum, the research assessment exercise and R&D tax credits, but it is hard to see that this will ever create much excitement about the acquisition of new scientific knowledge and the process of turning this into new products and businesses.

The next in the series of New Statesman/Pfizer policy forum discussions will address the question: what are the main obstacles to creating a more innovative Britain?

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Creating Sustainable Health Systems in Africa

1 July 2005
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Natural disasters, famine, conflict and disease epidemics have acted as prompts for aid initiatives and other external interventions in Africa. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has had a major impact on these discussions, particularly in relation to healthcare. In the absence of a cure or a vaccine, the emphasis is on creating sustainable health systems that can provide appropriate support for patients in the longer term. A desirable objective, but how can it be achieved? What are the responsibilities and optimum roles of western governments, companies and NGOs? What kind of interventions do African countries want and require?

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Reducing inequalities in health

8 November 2005
The King's Fund, London

Health inequalities exist and that most arise from the complex interactions between health, wealth, power and social status.To make a real impact on health inequalities, the NHS must change from an "illness service" to a true "health service". The discussion drew on real-life examples and revealed that self determination and patient empowerment are the necessary precursers to this change. If the government wants to help the NHS meet this challenge then adopting the viewpoint of the patient should be the first step.

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Fears, Phobias and Facts: How Risky is the Real World?

25 May 2005
The King's Fund, London

Many scare stories, aroused by statistically small risks, sit alongside widespread patterns of behaviour that are known to be highly dangerous, such as smoking and speeding. What does this tell us about society's ability or willingness to evaluate risks and benefits? Are people just no good at understanding risk, or are regulators and scientists just no good at understanding people?

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A 2020 vision for the NHS

28 March 2005
St. Thomas' Hospital, London

As the election approaches, health, and the NHS in particular, will be in the forefront of people’s minds. But what are the important issues, and will the NHS remain recognisable in 2020? Representatives from government, the UK healthcare sector and industry came together with policy advisers and commentators to consider how the health service can evolve to meet changing needs. Will choice become inevitable as we expect the health service to respond to our increasing consumer demands? Should we be concentrating less on choice and more on primary care in the community? And as we live longer, will we be healthier than ever before?

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