Health inequalities in the UK are continuing to widen. They permeate every aspect of the population’s health, affecting the length of our lives, the health conditions we develop, our access to healthcare services and the nature of our deaths.

These unjust and preventable differences are not primarily the result of individual choices but rather a wide range of interconnected social and environmental factors known as the building blocks of health.

In addition to being a moral injustice, health inequalities have a significant effect on the NHS and the ability of overstretched staff to continue meeting growing demand. Doctors have told us they feel powerless to help their most vulnerable patients; they have been trying to pick up the pieces of successive governments’ failure to protect our health but the systemic issues extend far beyond what an individual doctor can address. 

One thing that can make it more difficult for doctors to understand and talk about health inequalities is the fact that the data is scattered all over the place. Data is published by a wide range of different bodies, often requires further in-depth analysis and, in many cases, may not even be collected at all.

The new BMA data hub for health inequalities in England aims to support doctors and patients by addressing this gap. By providing up-to-date comprehensive data on inequalities, the new webpage aims to help doctors better understand the effects of these inequalities on their patients.

It also supports doctors to act as advocates for change in their own spheres of influence – whether in their workplaces, wider communities, or at regional or national levels.

Other useful resources on specific aspects of health inequalities exist (eg, the effect on life expectancy) and we hope our data hub can complement these resources. Our new page aims to be a single go-to resource for doctors and others, comprehensively joining the dots between a broad range of datasets alongside clear recommendations for change.

The page will be updated every six months, with the latest data – and will be followed by webpages for the devolved nations later in the year. It is split into four sections around the key messages of:

1) Our recommendations for change

The UK Government has set goals of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, while increasing it for all, and raising the healthiest generation of children in the UK’s history. This section outlines the BMA’s clear recommendations for the UK Government and its associated bodies to achieve these goals and reduce the deep inequalities affecting the population’s health

2) The state of health inequalities in the UK is an injustice which must be urgently addressed; doctors are no longer able to keep picking up the pieces of systemic failures

This section brings together a range of data on the effects of inequalities on health, including life expectancy, the proportion of life spent in good health, the prevalence of certain conditions, and rates of death from preventable or treatable causes.

3) Access to public health and healthcare services is not equal or fair

This section outlines disparities in access to public health and healthcare services, something which stems from, and further reinforces, health inequalities. The data in this section includes the disproportionate cuts to preventive health services, access to primary and community care, vaccination uptake, cancer waiting times, waits for elective care and rates of hospital admissions.

4) The NHS will continue to struggle unless action is taken to address the building blocks of health, particularly for the most disadvantaged groups

This section examines the lack of equal access to the social determinants of health (eg, economic security, housing, food, employment, surroundings). It shows how only a small proportion of the population’s health is determined by healthcare services and that the effects of health and social care services is limited where these building blocks of health are not in place or are distributed unequally. 

In a nutshell, our population, health services and economy are all being failed by a lack of urgent action to address growing health inequalities. The BMA’s newly published data page aims to increase the pressure on the UK Government to take more ambitious action, while also providing doctors and other stakeholders with a comprehensive resource to use in their own work. 

Claire Chivers is a BMA senior policy adviser and Isabella Kerr is a BMA policy advice and research officer