Tackling Health Inequalities

They mean that some population groups have significantly worse health experiences and outcomes than others.  These differences can be due to a range of factors including a person’s social, economic and environmental circumstances – and we know that greater deprivation in any of these factors is associated with an increased risk of becoming ill earlier and dying younger.  People with certain characteristics, such as certain ethnicities, sexual orientation, age, and disabilities, also have a lower chance of living a long and healthy life compared to others.  This is often due to the exclusion from society that people with these characteristics face.

At Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust (DBTH) we want to do all we can to tackle unfair health inequalities so have developed this strategy with the aim to embed the reduction of health inequalities in everything we do to ensure equitable access and excellent experience, thereby providing optimal outcomes for our patients and the communities that we serve.  In order to achieve this aim, our strategy has set out 6 priority areas of focus which include:

6 Priority areas

1. Prevention
2. Elective care pathways / recovery
3. Urgent and emergency care pathways
4. Maternity and best start in life
5. Children and young people
6. Research and innovation 

Key Terms

Some key terms are (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2021):

Health Inequalities: Avoidable differences in health outcomes between groups or populations – such as differences in how long we live, or the age at which we get preventable diseases or health conditions.

Equality: We want everyone to have equally good health.  However, the term ‘equality’ is sometimes used to describe equal treatment or access for everyone regardless of need or outcome.

Equity: We want fair outcomes for everyone.  What is important is addressing avoidable or remediable differences in health between groups of people.  To achieve health equity, some groups may need more or different support or resources to achieve the same outcomes.  Ideally, the barriers to good health would be removed for everyone, so adjustments wouldn’t be required – however, this is not always possible.

Access: Ensuring everyone can access services equitably (that is according to need) is a key priority for the NHS.  To achieve this, consideration needs to be given to access to information, services and support. Central to this is enabling people to access the right service at the right time for them, reducing variation in the avoidable use of urgent support such as accident and emergency services through better access to preventative care.

---