MP COLUMN: Andrew Gwynne MP for Gorton and Denton

Over the last week, it has been my honour to represent the United Kingdom at the G20 Health Ministers Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

For those of you not familiar, the G20 is a forum that brings together the world’s largest economies, such as the USA, China, Indonesia, France, and Argentina - To discuss and collaborate on important global issues that affect us all. 

This year, Brazil held the presidency, and at the summit in Rio de Janeiro, we discussed strengthening pandemic preparedness, enhancing local production of medicines, vaccines, and health supplies, digital health, the impact of climate change on health and reducing health inequalities.

I was proud to speak on Britain’s leading role in combatting anti-microbial resistance, and how we’re leading globally on public health responses to animal-human diseases, such as Mpox. 

Beyond this, I spoke on increasing the UK’s pandemic preparedness, so that we never face a situation like we did in 2020 again, embedding health into all policies to tackle inequalities at a national level, the need for understanding the impacts of Long COVID, and on reform and financing for the WHO, to deliver a global health apparatus. 

Most of all, I made it clear that Britain remains committed to multilateralism, working with, learning from, and supporting our partners and allies abroad, as we all face the same global challenges and threats planet wide.

To this end, I visited several sites in Brazil, seeing how the Brazilian SUS (a health system modelled after our own NHS) is delivering on issues of health inequality and improving patient care in A&E. In the Botafago Vaccination Centre, I saw how proactive use of technology allowed for teams to improve vaccine uptake in the most deprived communities in Rio, narrowing health inequalities and protecting people from debilitating diseases. In the CER Barra Primary Healthcare centre, I watched as patients were triaged from A&E, providing them with medicine, or intermediate care as they waited to be seen. 

These programmes mirror the work we are undertaking in our own NHS, as we seek to move from analogue to digital, from hospital to community and from sickness to prevention.

Whilst in Brazil, I signed a Letter of Intent with the Brazilian health minister, ensuring that we can keep learning from one another, and collaborating with one another. 

I also met with health ministers from around the world, about how we can all do the same to deliver better global health outcomes.

It was an honour to represent our nation on the world stage, and to firmly state that the UK is back, and ready to lead on global issues once more.