Widening health inequalities are Labour's most shameful NHS failure

12.33.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 8th Apr 2008

Figures revealed by local Liberal Democrats have shown that the life expectation in St Peters and Park Wards and are up to seven years lower than other parts of Wolverhampton.

Zahid Shah, Liberal Democrat Candidate for St Peters said "Life expectancy in St Peters ward is 75.2 years, compared to Tettenhall Wightwick's life expectancy of 82.1 years. For the past decade, the Labour Government has delivered little more than broken promises on reducing health inequality.People from poor backgrounds and those unable to act as strong advocates for their own health continue to die younger and have a worse quality of life than the population as a whole."

Wolverhampton City Council is one of the "Spearhead Group" of local authorities that the Government has created it target improvements in life expectancy. In 2004-2006 Wolverhampton was deemed off-track on both indicators for both male and female life expectancy.

Claire Darke, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Park Ward added "Life expectancy in Park ward is 75.5 years. Across the UK Health inequality has got worse since Labour came to power, a government report has admitted -babies born to poor families now have a 17% higher than average chance of dying, compared to a 13% higher than average chance 10 years ago."

David Sinclair, Head of Policy at Help the Aged said "These figures make a mockery of the Government's attempts to tackle rising inequality and represent a staggering failure."