Growing healthy life expectancy gap between most and least deprived areas deeply worrying, say health leaders

Responding to the Office for National Statistics data showing the gap in healthy life expectancy between most and least deprived areas in England has grown, Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said:

“These figures paint a worrying but sadly unsurprising picture of the gap emerging between how long people in the most and least deprived areas in England can expect to live in good health. 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. 

“Health leaders fully support the government’s health mission to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas through tackling the social, economic and commercial determinants of health. That is why we welcome the commitment in the government's newly-released Ten-Year Health Plan to establish a neighbourhood health centre in every community, beginning with 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. 

“Although an ambitious mission, the Ten-Year Health Plan outlines many of the changes required to improve life expectancy and years lived in good health, as well as empower people to make the healthy choice. We stand ready with our members to work with government and NHS England on implementing the vital reforms set out in the plan.”