Health inequalities exist in most countries, but a defining principle of the UK’s National Health Service has been the equality of care provided throughout the land.  A new report from Cambridge University makes sober reading, therefore, as it highlights the growing health inequalities across the country.

The report reveals that people living in the poorest towns in England have roughly 12 fewer years of good health than their peers in the richest towns.  This was also reflected in hospital admissions, which in the poorest towns were double those found in the most affluent, with this particularly pronounced for alcohol-based admissions.

Indeed, even the historic urban/rural divide on life expectancy has gone into reverse, with the life expectancy of those in towns now worsening compared to their city-based peers, with female life expectancy now higher in cities than in towns for the first time this century.

“Declining fortunes and debates over Brexit have highlighted the chasm that divides many town inhabitants from those in cities,” the researchers say.  “However, on some key health measures, inequalities between towns are much greater than the average difference between towns and cities. People in England’s most deprived towns lose over a decade of good health compared to the populations of wealthy towns.”

Health inequalities

There was a clear geographical divide in the data, with the healthiest towns typically found in the South East, and the unhealthiest found in the post-industrial heartland of Northern England.  Coastal towns typically had the highest levels of self-harm, with child obesity also common in these areas.

The researchers suggest that another important factor in this divide was the availability of public green spaces.  For instance, in affluent towns, they were twice as likely to have a municipal park as in poorer towns, who were also found to have 50% more fast food shops than their affluent peers.

“More deprived towns are much less likely to have a green town centre and much more likely to have high numbers of fast food outlets than their wealthier counterparts,” the researchers explain. “Both these factors contribute significantly to the widening of geographic health inequalities in England.”

They also worry that the coronavirus will make these inequalities more pronounced, as the most deprived towns often have older residents, who are most susceptible to the virus.  They also tend to have poorer employment prospects, which render them more vulnerable to the economic consequences of lockdown.

“The current government has said it is committed to ‘levelling up’ England’s regions,” the researchers conclude. “Tackling the factors damaging the health of the poorest towns will have to go much further than the hospital walls, including boosting skill levels, promoting local employment and building community resilience.”