Health inequality

It seems that for the media health equals hospitals. Other vital issues never see the light of day. Issues such as the fact that working class people get a very poor deal when it comes to health compared with middle class people.

The latest very detailed statistics from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety show that the issue of health inequalities needs to be raised at every opportunity by as many people as possible in whatever forum is available, from the media to the floor of the Assembly.

Health ... and everything else

There has been a lot of controversy about how much Northern Ireland is spending on health since the draft Budget was published. When health erupts on the public it’s usually about what the media see as a good issue – where should a maternity unit be based, should a new hospital be nearer Omagh or Enniskillen, why are people dying from MRSA in hospitals? All of these are important and emotive questions, very often a matter of life and death, but other vital issues rarely surface.

Social class gap continues in health

There has been a modest improvement in some aspects of health for people in deprived areas in recent years but they still fall far behind the Northern Ireland average. In a few aspects of health the gap has grown even wider. Paul McGill has been poring over a new set of statistics.

Health inequalities in Northern Ireland

It is possible to improve public health and reduce the gap between rich and poor but we are clearly not doing enough to tackle the underlying causes, argues Jane Wilde, director of the Institute of Public Health. The Programme for Government needs to be toughened across all sectors to tackle the causes of poverty and ill-health and we need to focus on social development as well as economic growth.