Key Summary
- Office for National Statistics data has shown that gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas in England has gone up
- The worst hit are women from the poorest parts of England and Wales
NHS Confederation director of policy Dr Layla McCay has expressed concern about the rising gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas in England.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has shown that the worst hit are women from the poorest parts of England and Wales.
Their healthy life expectancy has fallen to the lowest level since recent records began in 2013-15.
Women living in wealthier parts of England are likely to enjoy about two more decades of healthy life, according to ONS.
The gap between richer and poorer areas has also widened for both genders – for women, it has increased from 19.6 years in 2013-15 to 20.2 years in 2020-22, while for men, it has increased from 18.7 to 19.1 years.
McCay said these figures paint a "worrying but sadly unsurprising picture" of the gap.
"While we must remember that this data covers the period of the Covid pandemic, it is deeply disappointing to see drops in both life expectancy at birth and a widening of the gap in healthy life expectancy between people in the richest and poorest areas.
She lauded the proposals of the current Labour government's newly-released Ten-Year Health Plan and welcomed the move to establish neighbourhood health centres in places where healthy life expectancy is lowest.
“The government’s ambition to shift from sickness to prevention aligns with this goal of preventing the onset of long-term physical and mental health conditions and helping those with chronic conditions to improve their health. This will be key to improving people’s health and positively impacting healthy life expectancy," McCay said.
She said the Ten-Year Health Plan outlines many of the changes required to improve life expectancy and years lived in good health, and NHS Confederation is keen to work with the government and NHS England in implementing them.
