Our position on the cost of living crisis
Our position
The term ‘cost of living crisis’ covers factors which significant impact people who face financial challenges as part of their everyday life. Problems are worsening as the services they rely on are affected by the wider economic situation. Although the situation is not new, it is now affecting more people and affecting them more severely.
Although you can view the cost of living in terms of the wider determinants of health, it also affects people’s ability to access various health and social care services.. As such, it is likely to risk increasing health inequalities.
Health and care services must understand the shorter-term and longer-term implications of the cost of living crisis and, where appropriate, put mitigations in place.
We have identified the following actions that are designed to support people affected by the cost of living crisis:
Prescriptions
- GP should offer people over the counter medications on prescription, based on socio-economic grounds.
- Primary care staff should make sure patients taking lots of medication know about the annual prescription option.
Travel:
- NHS England should ensure people are aware of access to patient transport services or travel reimbursement schemes.
Dental care:
- Dentists should follow National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance to offer dental check-ups based on the patient’s risk factors. This will help free up NHS slots for more people who currently can’t find an NHS dentist and are forced to go private.
Remote bookings and appointments:
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NHS England should work with Ofcom and telecommunications companies to ensure that hospital and GP phone numbers are part of the freephone service, so cost is never a barrier to phoning a health service.
Our evidence
We commissioned a tracker poll to understand the changes that people may be making due to cost of living crisis. In March 2023, we found:
- 15% of respondents avoided going to a dentist because of the cost of checks ups or treatment.
- 6% of respondents avoided booking an NHS appointment because they couldn’t afford the associated costs, such as accessing the Internet or the phone call.
- 7% of respondents avoided buying over the counter medication they normally rely on.
- 6% of respondents avoided attending an NHS appointment because they couldn’t afford to travel(e.g., petrol costs, public transport costs).
- 5% of respondents have also avoided taking up one or more NHS prescriptions because of the cost.
In our survey, we saw that younger people (18 -24 and 25 – 34) were generally more likely to report having avoided health services because of issues related to cost.
These figures are similar to those in the earlier wave when the same questions were asked. In the December wave, figures were higher, but it is impossible to say whether this was unique to 2022 or whether we might expect a spike yearly.
Healthwatch across the country tell us about people contacting them with concerns about affording essential healthcare. In many areas, Healthwatch has undertaken surveys locally, including Healthwatch Hertfordshire, Healthwatch North Yorkshire and Healthwatch Sheffield, showing the impact on local people. Further reports are available in our reports library.
Our work
Our previous work on non-emergency patient transport service (NEPTS) highlighted that transport costs could be unaffordable for some people, and the NHS England review made some improvements to acknowledge this. Healthwatch North Tyneside’s evidence persuaded a GP steam to support people's costs if they need to be seen at another practice.
During the pandemic, we looked at the impact on NHS dentistry and found that affordability was a significant problem for many people as well as difficulty in finding appointments. We continue to work with stakeholders to raise this issue with NHSE England, and this has led to some changes in the dental services contract.
