THE life expectancy of the most deprived female residents in the Malvern Hills has fallen behind their wealthier neighbours, figures show.

New analysis by academics from the Institute of Health Equity at University College London shows the difference in life expectancy of the least and most deprived female residents in Malvern Hills has grown by 0.8 years, from 0.9 in 2010-12 to 1.7 in 2017-19.

This period was used because it was before the coronavirus pandemic, which substantially altered life expectancy figures.

Malvern Gazette: MP: Harriett Baldwin says it is difficult to explain the differences in the figuresMP: Harriett Baldwin says it is difficult to explain the differences in the figures (Image: Harriett Baldwin)

However, the gap between the richest and poorest male residents has shrunk by one year.

Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative MP for West Worcestershire, said: “I am not sure I can explain why the gap between the richest and poorest men has shrunk by one year while the gap between the richest and poorest women has grown by 0.8 years.

“I welcome the Government commissioning a Women's Health Strategy since 2019 and we have put record resources into the NHS, including increasing its budget by over a third in real terms since 2010, hiring 50,000 additional nurses since 2019 and hitting our target early to create 50 million additional GP appointments.

“In West Worcestershire, the local ICB received £1.65 billion of funding last year, whilst there were 2,962 more GP appointments in the twelve months up to December 2023 than in the same period in 2019.”

A leading health professional has written to dozens of MPs in the worst-affected areas of the country, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and former Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot told dozens of MPs their constituents are "suffering avoidable ill-health and living shorter lives than they should".

Sir Michael told MPs: "We need you to fight for all your constituents’ health. They are suffering avoidable ill-health and living shorter lives than they should due to poor policies and cuts to essential services.

He has also written to the leaders of all major political parties demanding action.

In his letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Sir Michael said austerity and funding cuts have "harmed health and worsened health inequalities".

A government spokesperson said: "As set out in our Levelling Up White Paper, we are committed to narrowing the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030 and to increasing healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.

"Our upcoming Major Conditions Strategy will help us do this, by tackling the key drivers of ill-health in England.”