Heroes Not Zombies

There was a headline item on the morning news which, even though, it wasn’t really new, was still shocking. In Lenzie, Scotland, the life expectancy of a child who lives there is 81 years. Eight miles away, in the East End of Glasgow a child of the same age as the one in Lenzie has a life expectancy of 53 years. It’s not just the fact that such premature death is so common in present day Scotland, but the difference! 28 years! Neither of these facts are trivial. Wouldn’t you think that such a problem would command the attention and action of a society? What’s the problem? Funnily enough, it certainly isn’t a problem to be pushed off into the NHS to solve. Yes, the NHS has to provide the services to help the people who are suffering from the illnesses which cut their lives so short, but this is a much more complex problem than one which doctors and health care teams can effectively address.

Research by Prof Wilkinson and others has made it crystal clear that economic and social inequality is the heart of the problem. If we don’t address that as a society, we will never bring about any significant change to consign such shocking headlines to history.

These startling facts come from the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health.

Sir Michael Marmot, chairman of the commission, said: “The key message of our report is that the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age are the fundamental drivers of health, and health inequity.” He added: “We rely too much on medical interventions as a way of increasing life expectancy.”

And what kind of response has come from the government to this report? Ann Keen, health minister for England said –

The UK is at the forefront of tackling health inequalities, but the challenge of reducing the gap in life expectancy is still very much an issue.

Really? At the forefront? In fact, over the lifetime of the present UK government, inequality has increased significantly, not decreased. Isn’t it time to deal with this issue more honestly?