Hello, my name is Phil Wood and I am the Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

I took on the role as Chief Executive last year, having spent twenty years of my career working in Leeds as a consultant immunologist, a clinical director, and Chief Medical Officer. I want to talk a little today about how we are making healthcare more equitable for all in Leeds and beyond.

Phil WoodI once had a childhood friend called Alan. I met Alan in the first year of primary school – a long time ago now, back in the early 1970s. He lived around the corner from me, and we often played together after school.

One year, after the summer holidays had ended and the new term had begun, I remember asking my mother where Alan was, as I hadn’t seen him for a while. My mother told me that sadly Alan had died and gone to heaven.

When I was older, I learned that Alan had had leukaemia. In the ‘70s, more than 90% of children with acute leukaemia died, and it was effectively an untreatable disease. In early 2006, one of my nephews developed acute leukaemia and was terribly ill for a long time, but is now fit and well, fully cured of the same disease that sadly took Alan.

Over my 30-year career as a doctor, we have seen extraordinary advances in medicine, but despite this, it is sad to see that, in some ways, very little has changed since I first qualified. And that’s because not everyone has the same access and opportunity to benefit from this progress.

People living in the poorest parts of Leeds are likely to die 11 years earlier than those living in the most affluent parts of the city. 33% of the Leeds population live in areas ranked amongst the most deprived 20% areas in the country, and yet these individuals account for 40% of the non-elective activity we conduct within our hospitals.

Health inequalities are the systematic, unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, caused by the conditions in which we are born, live and work. As healthcare leaders we have a crucial role in tackling health inequalities. This is not just in the delivery of healthcare, but in influencing how we can improve the wider health of our communities – by promoting healthy living, supporting opportunities for secure employment, advocating for good housing, good education, and more.

Abolishing health inequalities requires a long-term commitment. Here in Leeds, we have already made tangible actions to launch us on this journey.

Strengthening our data to identify inequality and inform effective action is an ongoing process and a vital one. A standardised approach to ethnicity coding has been agreed across the Leeds healthcare system and new patient information datasets have been developed to support inequalities reporting across all teams.

We place great importance on our research activity, and it’s equally important that our recruitment demographic for these studies reflects that of the local population. Over the past year, we have recruited 800 patient and public members from diverse backgrounds to our research participation and engagement group. Their insights help us align our research goals with patient needs, expectations, and will ultimately improve health outcomes.

We have developed a new tool to identify inequalities and inform the design of quality improvement interventions within key cancer pathways. In our prostate cancer diagnostic pathway, we have successfully completed a project which has had a huge impact on improving health inequalities for black men, who have a higher risk of prostate cancer compared to the wider population. Before the project started, only 37.5% of black men were seen within seven days of their referral. Following completion last year, this improved massively to 80% of black men being seen within seven days.

In this update last month, Rachel Forbes talked about smoking being a key driver of health inequalities, and we know that in West Yorkshire, the number of adults who smoke is higher than the national average. Since launching our inpatient Stop Smoking Service in 2022, we have provided bedside support to over 6,000 smokers, with more than 500 having gone on to quit smoking.

Through focus groups, our maternity team has been engaging with the demographics experiencing poorer maternity outcomes – such as black African women more likely to have a stillbirth. Art therapy classes have been set up to provide a supportive space for pregnant women to talk about their experiences whilst being an opportunity to provide education on birth, infant feeding and bonding.

We know that missed appointments deepen existing health inequalities and our paediatric diabetes team has been working to establish the barriers preventing patients from disadvantaged backgrounds attending clinic – such as travel costs and taking time off work. The team are now looking at what’s needed to help get patients and their families to their appointments – even giving them a lift.

Last year, we marked a significant milestone of adding autism flags to patient records for 1,000 people. These flags clearly show that a patient is autistic and reminds our staff to check if the patient needs reasonable adjustments or offer a health passport. Patients are now having much better experiences of hospital because of this, with some accessing hospital care for the very first time.

These are just a few examples of the fantastic work being done in our hospitals and across Leeds – and we’re not stopping there. This year, we are scaling up our activity across our systems and processes, collaborating with our partners in the city and beyond. We will build on the great work we’ve already done, ensuring we are led by the data and that our actions are measured so we know we are making the desired impact.

I have been on my own journey in realising that the advances of modern healthcare are not enough by themselves to create a healthier society. We must do more to ensure that everyone has equitable opportunity to benefit, no matter their background.

Thank you for reading,
Phil.