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NHS better equipped to tackle local health inequalities

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 09 March 2010

New health inequalities tool allows local NHS to focus their resources

A new internet application, which will allow local trusts to monitor and respond to trends in infant mortality and life expectancy to tackle health inequalities, was launched today by Public Health Minister, Gillian Merron.

Gillian Merron was speaking at the ‘Marmot and The Third Sector’ conference which was an opportunity for delegates to respond to the Marmot review - entitled ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ - which identified key areas for future action in health inequalities.

The event aims to raise awareness among the Third Sector of the health inequalities challenge and provide a forum to develop understanding of their role in addressing health inequalities and how the Marmot Report can support their work.

The improved version of the Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit is an online resource which draws together key data and modelling on health indicators. The toolkit enables those areas with the worst health and deprivation – the Spearhead areas - to achieve both the life expectancy and infant mortality objectives within the national health inequalities target.

The newly announced infant mortality tool will allow the NHS and partners to see the risk factors that are driving their infant mortality rates and help them to plan how best to reduce them.

In addition, the toolkit allows Spearhead areas to see what factors are driving low life expectancy in their area and identifies the action needed to address this:

· helping people who want to give up smoking
· treating people with high blood pressure, or high cholesterol in people without diagnosed cardiovascular disease.
· reducing infant mortality
· controlling high blood sugar

Speaking at the conference Gillian Merron said:

“Life expectancy is the highest it has ever been and infant mortality is at an all time low, but more needs to be done to narrow the gap between Spearhead areas and the rest of England.

“Everybody should have an equal chance at good health and that is why the Government is working across the community and the Third Sector to address the wider causes of health inequalities.

“To further support local areas, we are launching a revised, updated and improved version of the Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit, developed in partnership with the Association of Public Health Observatories.“

Notes to Editors

1. The Marmot and The Third Sector event is being organised by the Department of Health’s Third Sector Strategic Partners, a wide-ranging group of third sector organisations who are funded to work with the Department and strengthen links between it and the sector.

2. The Third Sector Strategic Partner Programme aims to enable third sector organisations to work in partnership with the Department of Health and the NHS / Social Care to help shape and deliver policies and programmes, for the benefit of the sector as a whole and ultimately contribute to improved health and well-being outcomes for individuals and communities. More information about the Strategic Partner Programme can be found at www.dh.gov.uk/strategicpartners

3. The Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit was developed by the Association of Public Health Observatories and Department of Health and contains tools to support planning to achieve both objectives within the national health inequalities target. This includes tools on Life expectancy, infant mortality and commissioning interventions. The Toolkit is available at http://www.lho.org.uk/LHO_Topics/Analytic_Tools/HealthInequalitiesInterventionToolkit.aspx

4. Today the Public Health Observatories (PHOs) will mark their 10th anniversary with a joint one-day conference with the Department of Health where the keynote address will be delivered by the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson.

5. The national health inequalities Public Service Agreement target is to:

"Reduce health inequalities by 10% by 2010 as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy at birth."

Tackling health inequalities and achieving the Public Service Agreement target remains a key priority for the NHS as set out in the NHS Operating Framework 2010-11, and for local authorities as part of Local Area Agreements.

6. For more information, please contact the Department of Health Press Office on: 020 7210 5221.

Contacts:

Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk