Professor Chris Bentley is a Non-Executive Director at Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust and is also the Chair of the Quality and Safety committee. He is a prominent figure in population health and specialises in health inequalities.  

Chris’ recent presentation ‘Place-based approaches to Health Inequalities in the System’s Most Vulnerable Neighbourhoods’ explores how to address some instances of health inequality in Cheshire and Merseyside.

In it’s simplest definition ‘health inequalities’ refers to the health differences across groups and populations which are beyond an individual’s control. However, according to Chris, it is important not to ‘over define’ health inequalities. The current Coronavirus pandemic has accentuated the already prominent disadvantage across certain groups in relation to health, but also housing, food, employment, income etc.  

There are certain ways we can intervene: 

These segments need to work together to have the greatest impact. 

Cheshire and Merseyside have some of the most prolific hospital admissions in its most deprived areas in comparison to the national average. This insight includes admissions that could have been prevented through out of hospital care; this pattern is characteristic of the North West as a region.

Can these emergency admissions be prevented from out of hospital care? And why are some areas able to reduce poor outcomes more successfully than others? 

Seemingly, across Cheshire and Merseyside communitiy preventions are not always successful at supporting residents to avoid crises. Chris suggests three ways this can be addressed: 

1. Unwarranted service variation

2. Community-based interventions and

3. Service engagement with communities

What is imperative to addressing the excessive hospital admissions in the most deprived neighbourhoods and helping avoidance of crises is bridging the gap betweeen services and communities. There is already a lot of work going on in communities and the health services have often not integrated with the already established and trusted organisations in these communities. Perhaps on a place-basis what we need to do is link primary care networks into these already existing structures, thus harnessing them to bridge the gap between health care and communities. 

Systems need to address this issue in order to make a percentage change. Some health systems are already making progress and connecting with communities by working with groups and organisations, however, in others there is still lots of work to be done. This is what the Cheshire and Merseyside partnership will be looking to take forward. 

Please watch Chris Bentley’s full presentation. He eloquently explores the above whilst going into more statisitcal detail regarding specific areas of Cheshire and Merseyside.