Second thoughts: Healthcare is failing those who most need it - The Guardian 28th November 2007

Healthcare is failing those who most need it, says Liz Kendall The health secretary, Alan Johnson, has promised that "under-doctored areas" - places with poor GP provision, such as Hounslow, Hull and Hartlepool - will be able to set up new practices using a £250m "access" fund. But if the initiative is to work, ministers must learn the lessons of the recent past. The move, announced last week, is the cornerstone of government plans to tackle health inequalities. Social and economic factors, such as poverty, unemployment and bad housing, are a major cause of the nine-year difference in life expectancy for men in Manchester compared with Chelsea, London - a gap that has widened over the last decade - and also why the babies of low-skilled workers are almost twice as likely to die as those of professionals.

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