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The sick men and women of Europe?

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The sick men and women of Europe?

The UK’s long-standing continuing increase in life expectancy is slowing down and there remains a persistent north-south health divide, particularly among younger people. So said world leading authority on health inequalities, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, speaking at the annual Royal Pharmaceutical Society/UCL School of Pharmacy new year lecture.

From 2011 to 2015 the increase in life expectancy in the UK was the slowest in Europe among women and second slowest among men. “This is serious and should be treated with as much urgency as the current NHS winter bed crisis,” he said.

Moreover, health inequalities, which had become smaller during the 2000s, are now growing again. The north-south health gap clearly reflected industrial and economic policy, he believed.

The impact of austerity on health inequalities and life expectancy needed to be investigated urgently, he said, pointing out that NHS spending grew at nearly 4 per cent a year from 1978 but slowed to 1.1 per cent after 2010. Meanwhile, social care spending has been cut by more than 6 per cent since 2009, at a time when the population aged 65 and over has grown by a sixth.

If the US represents our future, then the portents are not promising. Life expectancy in the US has actually declined for two years in a row, he said.

Urgent action is needed to address the social determinants of health in this country, for instance by:

  • Giving every child the best start in life
  • Enabling all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives
  • Creating fair employment and good work for all
  • Ensuring a healthy standard of living for all
  • Creating and developing healthy and sustainable communities
  • Strengthening the role and impact of ill health prevention.

“Why treat people and send them back to the conditions that made them sick in the first place?” he asked.

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