Nearly 90% of doctors who responded to a Royal College of Physicians survey said that they were concerned about the impact of health inequalities on their patients.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has called on the UK government to set out how it will tackle avoidable illness, as new data reveals widespread concern among doctors about the growing impact of health inequalities.
Nearly 90% of respondents to the RCP’s recent member snapshot survey reported they were concerned about the impact of health inequalities on their patients, while almost half (46%) said that at least a half of their workload was due to illnesses linked to social and economic factors such as poor housing, education, and employment.
The professional membership body points out that there is a nearly 20-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of England.
“With over 2.5 million more people in England projected to be living with a major illness by 2040, there is no time to waste. We need assurances that improving health and tackling health inequalities remain a priority,” said John Dean, RCP clinical vice president.
The RCP, which convenes the Inequalities in Health Alliance, is calling for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities since 2020, arguing that tackling the factors that make people sick in the first place – like housing, food quality and employment – is vital to reducing avoidable demand on the NHS.
Health inequalities
Almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents to the survey reported seeing more patients in the past three months with illnesses caused or worsened by wider social determinants of health – things like poor quality housing, education, employment (including how much money someone has), air pollution and access to transport.
The RCP says that clarity is needed on how the government will tackle the social determinants of health that halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived regions in England.
The RCP says reducing health inequalities is not just a health priority but an economic one. Before the pandemic, health inequalities were estimated to cost the UK £31 billion to £33 billion in lost productivity. Ill health in the population is increasingly visible in the labour market. The Keep Britain Working Review report, published in March, found there are 8.7 million people in the UK with a work-limiting health condition, up by 2.5 million (41%) over the last decade.
“The repercussions of health inequalities extend far beyond the individuals affected. They impact our ability as doctors to provide timely and effective care, as we find ourselves treating conditions that could have been prevented with better social support,” said Ash Bassi RCP regional adviser for Mersey, and a consultant gastroenterologist based in Prescot, near Liverpool.
