Today is World Health Day and this year the focus is on the action needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and create societies focused on well-being.

The last two years have been extremely difficult and uncertain during a global pandemic which had a detrimental impact on our city’s health and well-being.

COVID-19 and associated lockdowns have highlighted the health inequalities that already existed in our society. Everyone was affected but it was the most vulnerable who were hardest hit.

What has become clearer than ever is the importance of research and innovation to the health and social care system to tackle not only the continued threat of COVID-19 but also the chronic conditions that are prevalent in our local region, and that all too often exacerbate those inequalities.

AS the academic health science system for Cheshire and Merseyside and our mission at Liverpool Health Partners is to bring our partners from the NHS and higher education together to work to benefit the health of our local population.

The fundamental driver for us is to make a difference to the people of our region and the pandemic taught us that we must never lose sight of this, and that partnership collaboration is the only way to do this.

On this World Health Day our commitment to you is that we will continue to strive to do all we can to facilitate driving the science to make a difference in health outcomes that really matter to our community as we move out of the pandemic.

Through our programmes, our efforts to build research capacity, and to aid the work of researchers through the Single Point of Access to Research and Knowledge, we will continue to foster collaboration to make a difference to the health of people in Liverpool.