Public Health

In this month's Issues Index for The Economist, we have recorded the highest ever concern about both poverty/inequality and low pay/fair wages.

The balance of opinion in the UK has hardened against private providers running healthcare services, says a new Ipsos poll for King's College London.

Public confidence and advocacy in the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) has increased, and public confidence in donation is boosted by regulation according to an Ipsos survey.

An Ipsos poll commissioned by the Royal Society of Chemistry has shown that 74% of the public believe that a major research and development effort is needed to create new antibiotics for fighting infectious disease.

In a month in which energy prices have dominated many of the headlines, a fifth of the public (19%) are now concerned about prices/inflation. This is an increase of 8 percentage points since September

Ipsos and the Foundation Trust Network explore public attitudes towards funding within the NHS. Do the public accept the need for change and how do they react to ideas for service changes?

Concern about defence/foreign affairs climbs to highest level since the Libyan crisis in April 2011, though the economy celebrates its fifth anniversary as the most important issue facing Britain.

Concern about the economy falls to the lowest point in five years as concern about race/immigration rises to meet it. Poverty and housing also rise in prominence.

Though the public are starting to be more optimistic about the economy, it is still an issue of great concern at this moment in time.