RESEARCHERS at the University of York have shown that waiting times for a common heart procedure are 20 per cent longer for patients living in deprived areas of England compared to patients from more affluent neighbourhoods who attend the same hospital.

Twenty thousand patients a year undergo non-emergency coronary angioplasty, which involves stents – small wire cages — being inserted in their coronary arteries.

The reasons behind this inequality in hospital waiting times are not known, but previous research has suggested that unconscious bias by clinicians towards more affluent patients capable of lodging effective complaints might be a factor that needs further investigation, a spokesman for the university said.

The spokesman added that other potential factors that have been considered in the past include the ability of more socially advantaged patients to better attend appointments and convince clinicians of the urgency of their case.

Professor Richard Cookson, from the University of York’s Centre for Health Economics, said: “Average hospital waiting times in England have been rising since 2008, but our latest research sounds a warning signal that social inequality in waiting times for some elective procedures may also be increasing at the same time.

“To investigate this we looked at non-emergency coronary angioplasty, a common cardiovascular procedure, and compared trends in waiting times in patient groups split in equal size across different socioeconomic backgrounds.

“In the early 2000s waiting time inequality was even higher – more like a 50 per cent gap between most and least advantaged groups – but then fell to around 10 per cent by 2008 alongside large falls in average waiting times for surgery. After 2008, however, average waiting times started to increase, and the gap between people from affluent and disadvantaged backgrounds also appears to be creeping upwards.”