David Ellis, Birmingham Socialist Party
The estimated number of years of healthy life someone can expect to live in England has fallen for the fifth year in a row. New figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that healthy life expectancy has fallen by nine months for men and fourteen months for women compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. This means that more of us can expect to live more of our life in poor health.
The pandemic and growing waiting lists are expected to have contributed to this fall. However, the fall in healthy life expectancy predates the pandemic, and stopped improving as early as 2012. Over a decade of austerity since then has resulted in declining living standards and an NHS without the funding needed to manage the pressures of a growing and ageing population.
An unequal fall
The deterioration in health is also not equal across society. Women living in the least deprived areas can expect to live until 70 without significant health issues. Meanwhile, women in the most deprived areas can expect less than 52 years – an 18-year gap!
Infant mortality – which was falling until around ten years ago – has also increased in the period from 2021 to 2023. But again, it’s the poorest that suffer most, with infants in the most deprived areas dying at more than twice the rate of those in the least deprived areas.
While a privileged minority claws up ever larger proportions of the country’s wealth, the working class is left to get poorer and sicker. Improving the health of all requires a complete end to the privatisation of the NHS and the resources needed to meet rising demands. It requires a nationalised social care system to care for the most vulnerable in our society and allow them to live in dignity with a high quality of life. But most of all, it requires a socialist democratically planned economy to end poverty and a system of capitalist exploitation.
