The NHS spends more than half its budget on people who can't access the internet – here's what I'm doing to change that

It's not just being poor that makes people sick – it's digital poverty, writes Helen Milner

(Getty/iStock)

On Tuesday, Professor Sir Michael Marmot released a 10-year review of his 2010 report into growing health inequalities. I’m sure we all agree with health secretary Matt Hancock that “there’s still more to do”.

Marmot’s review reveals stalling life expectancy for men and women in England since 2010. The more deprived the area, the shorter the life expectancy. The trends show that people in poorer areas spend more of their lives in ill health than those in affluent areas, and that life expectancy among women in the poorest communities in England has seen the biggest decline (on top of this, there’s a clear north-south divide). The poorest in our society will die sooner, and live longer with health-limiting conditions.

What Professor Marmot describes is shocking, and supports our own research, but is it impossible to overcome? At the Good Things Foundation, we don’t think so. In fact, our digital inclusion charity is already showing there’s a way to tackle the problem.