In October, NHSE working with NHS SCW published its framework on NHS action on inclusion health. The first NHSE framework of its kind, the document aims to support NHS leaders to enable greater access to and improved experiences of healthcare for those who are socially excluded, and who typically experience multiple interacting risk factors for poor health, such as stigma, discrimination, poverty, violence, and complex trauma.
The term used to describe these groups of people is ‘inclusion health.’ They include people who experience homelessness, those with drug and alcohol dependence, migrants and refugees, Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities, those in the criminal justice system, as well as sex workers, victims of modern slavery and other marginalised groups.
These groups are at the extreme end of deprivation and tend to experience poor provision of healthcare services due to multiple barriers often related to the way that healthcare is designed. This means that those needing medical care the most are often the least likely to receive it. This results in significantly poorer health outcomes and earlier death with mortality rates 12 times higher in women in inclusion health groups compared with the general population, and 8 times higher in men (The Lancet, January 2018).
This new framework aims to address this issue putting people in inclusion health groups as a priority in the wider drive to reduce health inequalities.
- You can view a copy of the report on the NHSE website.
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