PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Health Services: Disadvantaged (28 January 2019)

The Government seeks to ensure everyone has the same opportunity for a long, healthy life. There are currently inequalities in the use of health services with the most deprived parts of the population having more avoidable hospital admissions and greater use of accident and emergency services. This is why the Department’s prevention vision puts prevention at the heart of the nation’s health, shifting the focus from treatment of individual conditions to improving long term health for all and putting more resource into primary and community care.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out how the National Health Service will develop over the coming years and take stronger action surrounding health inequalities. NHS England has committed to ensuring a higher share of funding goes towards geographies with high health inequalities. This funding is estimated to be worth over £1 billion by 2023/24.