Health gap between rich and poor in London widens

The health gap between the rich and the poor across London is getting wider despite government targets to stamp out inequalities in health, a report has shown.

People living just a few miles apart have widely varying life expectancies—a pattern that is likely to be repeated throughout England and Wales, says the document from the recently established London Health Observatory, one of eight regional public health observatories around England.

Figures collected by the London Health Observatory for 1997 to 1999 showed that a baby boy born in Westminster, one of London's richest boroughs, is likely to outlive …