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Coronavirus latest: Britain’s lack of preparedness for tackling Covid-19 crisis linked to austerity, health expert says

Sir Michael Marmont blamed a lack of financial support for the health and social care systems during the 2010s for the issues facing the UK

The UK’s “lack of preparedness” for the coronavirus pandemic is directly linked to a decade of stringent austerity measures, the chairman of a Government-commissioned review into health inequalities has said.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of University College London’s Institute of Health Equity, said that the lack of financial support given to the health and social care systems during the 2010s is partly to blame for the overwhelming issues now facing the country.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend whether it was possible to connect austerity in the 2010s with the public health response to the Covid-19 crisis, Sir Michael said: “I think there is.

“We’re terribly worried about the health of workers in social care. The reduction in adult social care spending over the last decade was 7 per cent in real terms. But in the most deprived 20 per cent of areas the reduction was 16 per cent. In the least deprived 20 per cent the reduction was 3 per cent.”

‘Clear line’ between austerity and lack of preparedness

The professor continued: “We’re wringing our hands about how awful it is in social care – we just haven’t been spending – in fact doing the opposite.

“So there’s a clear line between our lack of preparedness in the healthcare system, in the social care system and in community resources more generally – the decline of support for the voluntary sector – a clear line between austerity and our lack of preparedness to cope with this pandemic.”

Sir Michael went on to say that rather than being “the great leveller”, as some have described the coronavirus pandemic, he believed it had instead exposed “underlying health inequalities” and amplified them.

The lockdown restrictions also demonstrated the “opposite of affecting people equally”, he added, as he compared a family in a comfortable home with plenty of garden space to a family of five in a tiny high rise flat in London.

Increased mortality

His comments followed a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that found that people living in the most deprived areas of England have experienced coronavirus mortality rates more than double those living in the least deprived areas.

For those deaths involving Covid-19 that took place between March 1 and April 17, the mortality rate in the most deprived areas was 55.1 deaths per 100,000 population.

By contrast, the rate was 25.3 deaths per 100,000 in the least deprived areas.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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