Health Inequalities and Population Health Management
What are health inequalities?
Health inequalities refer to the unfair and avoidable differences in health status between different population groups. These disparities arise from a variety of factors, including social, economic, environmental, and political determinants.
Health inequalities can manifest as differences in life expectancy, disease prevalence, access to care, and outcomes across different social groups.
What does this mean for primary care?
Primary care plays a critical role in addressing health inequalities because it is the first point of contact for most patients and is designed to provide accessible, continuous, and comprehensive care.
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Health inequalities are systemic issues that primary care can help address by improving access, ensuring equitable quality of care, and tackling social determinants of health.
What BEMS are doing to help:
We are helping practices and patients by increasing awareness in practice and in our communities on health inequalities.
We are representing primary care at strategic level meetings on addressing health inequalities across B&NES.
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We are collaborating on projects with our system partners and practices to address identified health inequalities.
Current projects:
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Improving access to healthcare for patients with Learning Disabilities:
As part of a recent initiative at Pennard Court, a learning disabilities assisted living facility in Twerton, our team collaborated closely with St Michael’s GP Surgery, Public Health, and the Vaccination Team to provide flu vaccinations and comprehensive health checks. Building on the success of this project, we are actively seeking new partners to work with to offer similar health initiatives. Additionally, we are planning follow-up visits that will focus on raising awareness of cancer symptoms, in collaboration with Oddballs and the NBT cancer team.
Improving awareness for Cancer Care in the Boating community:
We attended a boater health event to share cancer care resources, created a report on boater experience of primary care, used this to create boater-friendly practice guidance. This is available on the BEMS support page as a centralised place to optimise the care for patients with no fixed address
Targeted smoking cessation clinics for working age patients:
We are implementing targeted smoking cessation clinics for patients experiencing health inequalities. In collaboration with local GP practices, we are utilising the national Swap to Stop campaign to offer clinics at more accessible times and in convenient locations, making it easier for patients to access support outside of traditional surgery hours.
​Support for GP practices with Data Packs:
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We met with PCNs to facilitate a session and plan projects and actions focused on addressing health inequalities within their geographical areas. We also created an accessible document for practices and PCNs to review their own data and identify areas to focus on. Additionally, BEMS secured clinical time to delve deeper into the data packs, to ensure that the data is most effective for practices to tailor projects for patients.