After 2011, more than 1 million people died due to many factors, according to research by Public health professionals in the UK.
According to the report from the article ‘Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short’ between 2011 and 2019, about 1,062,334 people died. About 1,51,615 people died prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022.
The author of the seminal review in health equalities, Marmot, stated that inequalities in premature death were a “dismal state of affairs.” He said that the poor are at higher risk of dying due to illness due to poverty, unemployment, and poor housing. He urged the politicians to take more action.
He added that politicians should take action on the social determinants of health, as the National Health Services are funded publicly and free to use to take action on social conditions that determine the cause of health inequalities.
According to the analysis from Cancer Research, 33,000 cancer cases in the UK are linked to deprivation. In England, women from poor communities die earlier than women from rich communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian and black people are at higher risk of getting infected when compared with white people. Policies introduced with a focus on education by the Labour government between 1997 and 2010 have shown less consideration for health inequalities.
According to a report by Health Equity in England, the life expectancy of people in England is greatly reduced, and it is much reduced for women from poor communities. Also, according to the report, healthy years of life free from illness have worsened in the UK in recent years when compared with other countries like the European Union.
Men and women of England had an average number of healthy years when compared with those from the rest of the UK in 2014.
The Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said that the next mission of the Labor government is to make Britain a fair place for everyone to live. He said that only the shortest waiting list for National Health Services was provided by the last labor government. He also said that the place we are born and the circumstances we live in should not determine our lifespan.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Rohini Devi)
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2024/jan/08/england-deaths-inequality-poverty-austerity-covid-study-public-health
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/oct/14/deprivation-causes-extra-33000-uk-cancer-cases-each-year-analysis-finds
https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/health-inequalities-lives-cut-short
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/02/covid-19-death-rate-in-england-higher-among-bame-people
