Deprivation is known to be a key driver in health inequality; it is associated with lower life expectancy and worse health outcomes. The ambition of the Advancing Quality (AQ) programme is to reduce unwarranted variation in the care delivered to patients which can lead to avoidable hospitalisation, ill health and premature death; tackling health inequalities linked to deprivation is a key way to achieve this.
This report looks at the scale of deprivation in the North West, and provides insights into how deprivation impacts on access to and experience of care, from NHS and our AQ programme data. The report also highlights how the AQ programme can help providers tackle inequalities, at team, organisational or system level.