By Tom Addison, Policy Manager, The Physiological Society
Every year The Society attends the political party conferences to advocate for physiology and UK R&D. The 2021 party political conference season was always going to feel unusual after the pandemic so fundamentally changed the way we have engaged with mass gatherings over the past 18 months. In his foreword for the booklet for Labour Party Conference, which took place this week, Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer MP wrote that the country and his party both stand at a crossroads as to how they emerge from the pandemic and conference itself reflected both aspects of this re-emergence.
On a practical level, Labour conference in Brighton was over a much smaller footprint than in previous years but as a result, fringe events were fuller and – rather surprisingly – mask-wearing nowhere near Government recommended levels for indoor mass gatherings – very much a return to ‘business as usual’. On a political level, conference was an opportunity for Starmer to demonstrate the Labour Party as a credible party of Government.
In this vein, much was made of the perceived quiet competence of the Labour Government in Wales and the four ‘Metro Mayors’ in London, Greater Manchester and South and West Yorkshire. Nevertheless, the internal divisions which continue to define Labour to many voters remain. Labour MP Andy McDonald resigned from the Shadow Cabinet over a £15/hour minimum wage.
On policy issues affecting The Society and its members, the majority of fringe events focused on health and care systems as they emerged from the pandemic and Labour’s response to the Government’s ‘science superpower’ agenda.
Chi Onwurah MP, the Shadow Science Minister, echoed her leader’s pledge that Labour would spend 3% of GDP on Research & Innovation by 2030 (compared to the Government’s current 2.4% pledge). She also argued that the Government should move beyond a ‘transactional’ relationship with science and focus its R&D efforts in areas such as The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), should have a ‘public good mission’ and be focused on improving life.
She also argued that public investment in science should encourage public-private partnerships with the Government setting the direction of travel and ultimate objectives. In a separate session, Onwurah also argued that it would be impossible to build back from COVID-19 in a fair and sustainable way without building a high-skill, high-wage economy across the country, echoing the Government’s Build Back Better slogan if not trusting them with its delivery.
The Society’s policy team also attended a fringe event hosted by the Institute for Government and the Health Foundation. The Health Foundation’s Director of Research, Anita Charlesworth highlighted both the backlog of patients waiting for surgery as a result of the pandemic and the ‘hidden backlog’ of an estimated 8 million people who need treatment but have not yet engaged in the system.
She noted that to maintain the status quo of a waiting list of approximately 5.7 million people would require £13.3 billion of additional NHS spend and that even if this money was forthcoming, the NHS would have to plan carefully to ensure equitable access across the country and ensure that people were better able to manage their conditions while on the waiting list.
Both of these fringe sessions feed directly into The Society’s policy work and give us an opportunity to engage with new and existing networks as we continue our policy work for 2021 and plan for 2022.
The Government will lay out how it intends to meet the 2.4% commitment in the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review and it will be The Society’s role to advocate for how physiology can deliver on an increased investment in our members’ research.
One such way is to demonstrate how physiology can inform the health and wellbeing of the public, from preventative health measures such as providing the evidence which should underpin the Government’s obesity strategy, through to the development of programmes designed to help people self-manage their conditions while the NHS works through its treatment backlog.
All these activities will be occurring with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and The Society is well placed to continue to demonstrate its impact in this area too.
Next week The Society heads to Manchester for Conservative Party conference. The COVID-19 pandemic response could well be at a crossroads – it is up to us to demonstrate how physiology can inform a healthier, more resilient recovery.