THE NHS cannot tackle the health gap between rich and poor by itself and can only provide a "sticking plaster" for such inequalities, according to the convener of Holyrood's Health Committee.

It has concluded that a "joined-up approach across a raft of policy areas" is needed to tackle the problem.

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee found that while there had been "many well-intended initiatives" aimed at reducing the differences in health between affluent communities and those in deprived areas "none has made any significant difference".

They also heard from experts that the effect of "lifestyle public health campaigns" encouraging people to eat more healthily, give up smoking, exercise more and drink less was "to widen inequalities rather than to narrow them".

The report said there was "agreement that some interventions, for example public health messages in relation to risky behaviours such as alcohol abuse, tobacco use, diet and exercise had been shown to have had little or no impact on health inequalities or, indeed, to have exacerbated them".