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Health service fails to meet equality targets
Efforts to reduce the inequality of health outcomes between patients from different socio-economic groups are not working, the government's own assessment has found.
The Department of Health (DoH) is aiming to reduce the inequality of medical outcomes for patients in the 'routine and manual' socio-economic group versus the general population , as outlined in its Public Service Agreement.
The targets set a reduction of 10% in inequality by 2010, as measured by rates of infant mortality and life expectancy at birth.
However, the DoH's latest progress report reveals that while outcomes continue to improve for both groups, the inequalities between them have increased.
For infant mortality, the gap between the two groups was 13% during the period 1997-9, but had increased to 17% in 2004-6. The gap between figures for life expectancy had also widened slightly.
According to Healthcare Republic, a DoH spokesperson admitted that they were 'disappointed with some of these figures'.
Category: Healthcare
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