Poorer people ‘live five years less’
Wealthy people live on average five and half years longer than poorer people, according to new research out today.
The analysis, by two Huddersfield primary care trusts and information company Experian, suggests a postcode lottery of healthcare provision is leading to people dying from preventable diseases.
The findings led Dr Sohail Bhatti, director of public health for Huddersfield Central and South Huddersfield primary care trusts (PCTs), to suggest that healthcare resources may have to be redistributed from affluent areas to poorer ones.
The Conservatives said the report showed that health inequalities had “worsened under Labour”.
But the government said it was moving in the right direction, and had launched initiatives to help improve health in the most deprived areas.
Headline figures show heart attack victims from poorer areas are three times more likely to die than those from affluent ones, while mental illness is eight times more likely to affect people from deprived as opposed to affluent neighbourhoods.
At least 10 per cent of annual deaths may actually be preventable, if the current inequality in healthcare provision is addressed.
“Our research suggests that 1,175 deaths have taken place in Huddersfield in the last five years that may have been unnecessary and preventable had there been more equitable healthcare provision,” said Dr Bhatti.
He said that because Huddersfield can be seen as presenting an average example, this problem could actually be worse in parts of the country with a bigger wealth gap.
This is the first time health service data has been analysed according to deprivation on a postcode level.
The study was carried out using a database programme, Mosaic, which maps socio-economic levels in detail. The programme is used in marketing and was also used by Labour and the Conservatives at the last election.
“The analysis raises serious questions about how best we allocate resources and it may be that we need to redistribute resources away from more affluent neighbourhoods towards the hard-pressed inner city GP practices,” Dr Bhatti said.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the report confirmed that “health inequalities have worsened under Labour” and he said it was time the government “started making their extra NHS investment reach the front line”.
But a Department of Health spokeswoman said the government was determined to tackle health inequalities, and highlighted pilot schemes launched in deprived areas – such as health trainers to help people stop smoking and make healthier lifestyle choices.
She said that “investment coupled with reform” was the way forward, and meant “patients across the country are getting faster treatment and a better quality of care”
Huddersfield Central and South Huddersfield PCTs profiled three years of health service usage data between 2002 and 2005.
