How do we reduce the life expectancy gap?
Daily Politics from the New Statesman
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Where you live could drastically impact how long you live.
According to the Office for National Statistics, a person in South Kensington, one of London’s wealthiest areas, can expect to live up to 16 years longer than someone in a more deprived area, like Blackpool.
In this episode, host Sarah Dawood is joined by a panel of guests to discuss the stark health inequalities across the UK.
- Jennifer Dixon DBE, CEO of The Health Foundation
- Jonathan Ashworth, CEO of Labour Together, former Shadow Secretary for Health, and former Labour MP
- Steve Brine, former Conservative MP, former Minister for Public Health and Primary Care, Chair of Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee, and host of Prevention Is The New Cure podcast
The panel discusses the social determinants, or building blocks of health, that shape health outcomes and life expectancy. They discuss the need for a cross-government approach to address these inequalities and highlight the urgency of meaningful, coordinated action to improve public health.
We also hear from Dr. Ronny Cheung, Consultant General Paediatrician at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Officer for Health Services at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
This episode is sponsored by Health Equals, a coalition of 27 organisations campaigning to ‘Make Health Equal’. Visit www.healthequals.org.uk
Show references: Health at the heart of government https://www.health.org.uk/publications/health-at-the-heart-of-government
Health and social care select committee prevention inquiry https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7205/prevention-in-health-and-social-care/
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – Child health inequalities and poverty toolkit https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/key-topics/child-health-inequalities-poverty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | New Statesman subscribers can access all of our reporting online and in the weekly New Statesman magazine, as well as ad-free podcast listening via the New Statesman app. |
| 0:10.1 | As a podcast listener, you can get your first two months for just two pounds at newsstatesman.com forward slash save. |
| 0:17.6 | That's newsstatesman.com forward slash save. |
| 0:21.7 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:27.3 | The UK is facing a crisis of health inequality. |
| 0:31.3 | How do we ensure more people live longer, healthier and happier lives? |
| 0:35.6 | From the New Statesman, this is Spotlight on Policy. |
| 0:38.6 | I'm Sarah Darwood. |
| 0:45.1 | Life expectancy is not simply down to fate. |
| 0:48.4 | The age people live until can depend on a huge range of external factors, |
| 0:52.4 | from where they're born, to how much money they have. |
| 0:54.8 | In fact, the difference in life expectancy between the wealthiest and most deprived areas in England is stark. |
| 1:00.6 | According to the Office for National Statistics, someone in London, South Kensington, could live up to 16 years longer than someone in Blackpool. |
| 1:08.0 | These unfair and often avoidable differences in outcomes are called |
| 1:11.3 | health inequalities and they are cutting thousands of lives short. In this episode, we're going |
| 1:16.7 | to explore what is driving the life expectancy gap across the country and ask what Kirstama |
| 1:21.8 | needs to do to tackle it. This episode is sponsored by Health Equals, a coalition of 27 |
| 1:27.2 | organisations campaigning to make |
| 1:29.0 | health equal. I'm joined by the Health Foundation's chief executive Jennifer Dixon, Jonathan Ashworth, |
| 1:36.0 | the chief executive of the think tank Labor Together, and former Labour MP and Shadow Secretary |
| 1:40.9 | for Health, and Steve Brine, host of the podcast, Prevention is a New Cure, |
| 1:45.7 | and former Conservative MP, Chair of the Parliament's Health and Social Care Committee, |
... |
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