BMA DOCTORS want urgent action to tackle poverty and improve public health services after an official report found a strong connection between deprivation and preventable deaths in England and Wales.
The link was made in an ONS (Office for National Statistics) report, released this week, which examined avoidable deaths across the two countries in 2015. There were nearly 16,700 deaths from avoidable causes in the most deprived areas, compared with some 7,200 in the least deprived ones, it found.
The largest relative inequality in avoidable mortality was for respiratory diseases. Men and women in the most deprived areas were, respectively, almost five and eight times more likely to die from avoidable causes compared with those living in the least deprived ones.
Smoking was considered to be ‘the most likely contributory factor to these differences’, ONS research officer for health analysis and life events Annie Campbell said. BMA board of science chair Professor Dame Parveen Kumar said the findings raised questions about access to high-quality healthcare for people living in deprived areas. ‘We need to address this social injustice, which leaves the poorest in society at greater risk of an early, avoidable death.’
• The Unite trade union has focussed on an employer’s attempt to create a climate of fear to intimidate a workforce. The use of touchpads with happy and sad faces to gauge worker satisfaction at Sport Direct’s warehouse in Shirebrook was branded an ‘emoji con’ by Unite.
Unite understands that finger recognition technology is being used, with workers asked to touch a happy or sad emoji as they clock in to indicate whether they feel they are treated with respect. According to Unite, workers selecting the sad face are asked if they are sure. If they are, pressing the sad emoji again results in the worker being called in by management to discuss why they pressed it.
In a warehouse where approximately 3,500 workers are on insecure temporary agency contracts, the revelation throws into question Sports Direct’s claims that the majority of warehouse workers feel they are treated with respect.
Unite believes such claims are ‘bogus’ because the survey lacks anonymity and workers are fearful of being labelled a ‘troublemaker’ and losing their job. Campaigners will hit the streets of Nottingham today (Saturday 2 September) ahead of Sports Direct’s annual general meeting in Shirebrook next week.
Using emojis, members of the public will be asked whether they think temporary agency warehouse workers and Sports Direct store staff are treated with respect. Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: ‘There are still approximately 3,500 agency workers at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook warehouse, the vast majority on contracts that guarantee no more than 336 hours a year.
‘Put yourself in their shoes. Would you risk having hours withheld, possibly losing your job and being called in by management because you indicated dissatisfaction with your work environment?
‘With reports from agency workers of crowded aisles, defective warehouse equipment and products stacked dangerously high, we know that health and safety is still a major cause for concern.’
‘We also know that meagre promises to move temporary agency workers onto permanent contracts with Sports Direct are not being met and that the process is often down to who you know rather than length of service or ability.’
