Imperial College London (ICL)

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This project will benefit patients in North West London by providing information about patterns of health service use.

This project is part of my Academic Foundation Programme research. Previous research conducted by the Child Health Unit at Imperial College London has shown that, in England between 2007-2017, children from higher deprivation backgrounds use unscheduled healthcare more and scheduled health care less than children from lower deprivation backgrounds. I would like to look at health service use by children in North West London and how the patterns vary by social deprivation groups. I will start by describing the patterns of scheduled (GP appointments, outpatient appointments and elective hospital admissions) and unscheduled (A&E attendance, emergency hospital admissions) by Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) deciles between 2015-2019. I will start with the analysis with analysing the year 2019. I would calculate the rate of these five outcomes per 1000 child-years for each of the ten IMD deciles. I will then examine whether these patterns are consistent across NW London or differ depending on characteristics of secondary or primary care providers. For example, have trends differed between areas that refer to different hospitals? For example, within St Mary’s catchment area, does involvement in the Connecting Care for Children (CC4C), or within Hillingdon’s catchment area, does access to Paediatric outreach clinics, influence healthcare activity? It has been hypothesised that more integrated care for children may have potential to narrow or widen health inequalities.

18/11/2021

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