---

Health Inequalities

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Mr. Turner) and the 10 Labour MPs who have spoken so eloquently in this debate. It is timely in the parliamentary agenda. Since the creation of the national health service, we have seen impressive social, economic and health improvements in this country. People in all regions and from every social group are healthier and living longer than ever before, and we should celebrate that, but—it is a big ““but””—despite those tremendous achievements, health inequalities remain. The Government recognise the great challenge that they pose and have established the most comprehensive programme ever seen in this country to address that deep social injustice—as opposed to the previous Tory Government, who buried the Black report and ignored it. Health inequalities are proving stubborn, persistent and resistant to change, and we are disappointed with the progress made. We have set national targets to narrow the gap in infant mortality across socio-economic groups and in life expectancy across geographic areas, but we have not seen the narrowing that we want. We knew that it would take time; we are the first Government in a generation to recognise it as a priority and choose to highlight it. We must acknowledge that every major country in the world, with the possible exception of Sweden, is struggling to resolve this intransigent problem. There are some early signs of progress. Some 60 per cent. of the areas with the worst health and deprivation, referred to as spearhead areas, are making progress to narrow their share of the life expectancy gap by 10 per cent. by 2010. We have already seen a 27.9 per cent. reduction in the heart disease absolute inequality gap and a 12.7 per cent. reduction in the cancer absolute inequality gap between the spearhead authorities and England, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North (Dr. Gibson) said, we must do more. The cancer reform strategy to get individuals to GPs early and the additional help in spearhead authorities are addressing the challenges. The number of children living in absolute poverty has been halved. The number of homeless families living in bed and breakfasts has been reduced sharply, and the number of teenage pregnancies is down. We have proved that with a concentrated effort it is possible to close the gap between the affluent and the disadvantaged. If the problem is stubborn and persistent, we as a Government must be so too. We are determined to see change on inequalities. The Secretary of State has said that tackling health inequalities will be central to the work of the Department of Health and is his priority for the NHS. He has announced that we will publish a comprehensive strategy next year for reducing health inequalities. In his interim report, published last week, my noble Friend Lord Darzi described the aims of the comprehensive strategy: to ensure that the NHS and other health services close unjustifiable gaps in health status between individuals, whatever their background, to ensure fair access for everyone to the NHS and to treat all patients fairly with high quality and good outcomes of care for all.