Healthcare inequalities in the United Kingdom: causes and evidence

Healthcare Inequalities

Are healthcare inequalities UK

Defining Health Inequality

The term healthcare disparity or healthcare differences have been defined in a number of ways. Healthcare inequality can be defined as the difference of the health levels of any tow comparable demographic groups within a certain country or a region even when proper healthcare facilities are available. The inclusive incidences include higher rates of mortality as well as morbidity within the people who belong to lower occupational classes and are poorer. These rates are higher as compared to the mortality rates in the people who belong to better occupational classes being richer and more privileged. Second important aspect that has been highlighted in the definitions of healthcare inequality includes increased rates of occurrence of mental healthcare-based issues in people from poor classes.

A number of countries have been highlighted with healthcare inequalities including Canada and UK. Since 1980, the documentation of healthcare inequality in UK has been started that has highlighted the disparities being faced by the people in UK (Barron 2009). The first documentation is known as the Black Report. Later in the year 2010, another important documentation highlighting healthcare inequalities was published by an epidemiologist at University College London, Sir Michael Marmot (Moyse 1994). The document is named as "Fair Society, Healthy Lives." It has highlighted a strong link between health and poverty. The most important term used in this case is the social gradient in health, which highlights the fact that with social levels of people, there is a great disparity in healthcare services received by the demographic groups. The report has highlighted that life expectancy of poor people is almost seven years shorter than that of richer people and poor people are at a higher risk of developing mental disorders as compared to the riches. The Economist carried out a review on this documentation and argued that along with the given factors, some other important factors that play a role in healthcare inequality also include lifestyle. Smoking as well as obesity is some of the main factors that are rising sharply in Britain that also plays important roles in healthcare inequality.

Health Inequality in UK: The Evidence

In the past few years, it has been seen that health of the people of England has improved very sharply. The data shows that in the year of 1841, the life expectancy of English men was 41 years and that for women was 42 years (Davies 2007). By the year of 1948, these figures showed greater improvement's, 67 years was the average age of men and 71 years for the women. In 2000, further improvements were seen as the life expectancy for men was 75 years and for women it was 81 years. These are some of the figures that show an increased improvement in healthcare in UK but still there are a number of disparities being seen in the healthcare availability among various ethnic and demographic groups in UK. The reports and studies have suggested that within the healthcare systems of UK, the healthcare disparities are very apparent and are very open in a number of ways. These disparities are very open when life expectancies of different groups within UK are compared (Ruxton 2002). It has been reported that if the social group of the person is higher and more privileged, life expectancy of the person or the group is higher and much better. These are some of the most striking difference in healthcare disparity in rich and poor in UK. One of the reports has shown that the life expectancy of a girl born in Chelsea or Kensington is 88 as compared to the girl born in Glasgow having the life expectancy more than ten units below. One of the most important facts in these cases is that Glasgow is one of the places with the lowest life expectancy.

There are a number of aspects that show increased healthcare disparity in UK. One of the main facts is that poor people live a shorter life as compared to the riches. The poor ones as compared to the riches in UK face greater years of poorer and low quality health. The second important fact is access to health facilities. Poor people have less access to health facilities. The studies and reports have shown that healthcare facilities at NIH UK are more based on the age of a person. Older people receive less quality of healthcare facilities as compared to the younger ones (Dowler 2007).

1. Mortality Gaps

It has been seen that mortality gaps in the social groups within UK has increased higher since the last few years. In 1930s, it was seen that the gap was not more than 1.2% while in the present days the gap has increased to almost 3% (Barron 2009).

2. Major Cause of Mortality

One of the major causes of mortality in UK includes coronary heart disease and in these cases, it has been seen that the trends of these mortalities also follow a socioeconomic gradient.

It has been reported that health inequalities in UK are measured in terms of socio-economic class thereby policies designed in these cases target this important aspect of healthcare inequality. Great differences have been seen in the healthcare inequalities in UK within many ethnic groups. Some ethnic groups in UK have highlighted this (Exworthy, Stuart, and Blane 2003).

Recent reports have shown that the gaps in health inequalities are widening in spite of the fact that the British government is trying hard to reduce the gaps. One of the main evidences of the failure of the English government in the reduction of the gap is that the aimed 10% reduction in the incant mortality rate has still not been achieved. Some of the main factors that have been added by the British government in order to tackle the gaps in health inequalities include housing and child poverty. Aim is to improve the condition of housing in the poorer areas and to reduce child poverty (House of Commons Health Committee 2009).

Conclusion

With the help of the evidences presented, it can be seen that great healthcare disparities are seen in UK. There is no doubt about the fact that there are a number of factors that play roles in these disparities but also, an important fact is that the British government needs to define strategies that can help in understanding of these factors. Some of these factors include poverty, increase in the gaps in access to the healthcare, housing lifestyles especially in the poorer wards in UK, and most importantly the attitudes of medical healthcare facilities towards people of various ages and ethnicities. The changes are needed in the UK healthcare systems and there is a need that checks are made on the behaviors and attitudes of the healthcare centers towards different ethnicities, races, and ages. One of the most important facts in these cases is that a comparison between access to healthcare by the poor and the riches need to be kept in mind. The evidence in the paper has shown that the riches in UK have better access to healthcare as compared to the poor ones based on which poor people are at 3% higher risk of suffering from mental healthcare disorders as compared to the rich people.