Inequality costs the NHS £4.8 billion a year

News | Posted on Tuesday 17 May 2016

Socioeconomic inequality costs the NHS in England £4.8 billion a year, almost a fifth of the total NHS hospital budget, according to researchers at the University of York

Equality equity
The research team found that the more deprived the neighbourhood that someone lives in, the sicker they tend to be and the more likely they are to require admission to hospital. This ‘social gradient’ in poor health affects everyone in the country, not just those in the most deprived neighbourhoods, the authors conclude. Read more
 
 
Asaria M, Doran T, Cookson R. The costs of inequality: whole-population modelling study of lifetime inpatient hospital costs in the English National Health Service by level of neighbourhood deprivation. JECH 2016;doi:10.1136/jech-2016-207447. 
 
Further information about Health Equity Indicators for the NHS