Health Inequalities Programme

Supporting colleagues to help reduce health inequalities across the healthcare system

About the Health Inequalities Programme

For some people in the UK there are still unfair and avoidable inequalities in their health as well as their access to and experiences of NHS services. Health inequalities are the preventable, unfair and unjust differences in health status between groups, populations or individuals that arise from the unequal distribution of social, environmental, and economic conditions within societies. They can determine the risk of people getting ill, their ability to prevent sickness, or their opportunities to take action and access treatment when ill health occurs.

After more than a century of improvement, increases in life expectancy have stalled. For women in the most deprived communities in England, using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), there has been a decline in life expectancy in the last decade. People in more deprived areas spend more of their shorter lives in ill health than those in the least deprived areas.

The health inequalities programme is designed to help healthcare professionals to:

• understand the importance of health inequalities in clinical practice
• recognise the causes of health inequalities in services, experience, or outcomes among patients
• reflect on the role of the healthcare professional in narrowing the gap on health inequalities
• apply quality improvement methodology to tackle health inequalities in their field
  
  

Sickle cell disease

The 1st session of the health inequalities programme to be launched focuses on sickle cell disease, which is the name for a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. The most serious type is called sickle cell anaemia. People with sickle cell disease produce unusually shaped red blood cells that can cause problems because they do not live as long as healthy blood cells and can block blood vessels. Sickle cell disease is a serious and lifelong health condition, although treatment can help manage many of the symptoms.

This session, which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete, is an ideal resource for healthcare professionals looking for information and advice on how they can help to close the healthcare inequities gap among patients of sickle cell disease.

Being Heard

 

How to access

In order to access any elfh programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.

Register

To view the Health Inequalities programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View

If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the Health Inequalities programme by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.

Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Health Inequalities programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

For more information click here