MJA vice-chair Emma Wilkinson, took a step away from her usual role reporting for the specialist press this week to take part in a BBC 5 Live broadcast from a bus.
Emma broadcast live from the number 83 bus
She had been contacted by the producers of Naga Munchetty’s lunchtime show to share her expertise on a special programme on women’s health inequalities.
To highlight how gaps in life expectancy can vary widely simply based on where you live, the team set off on the 83 bus across Sheffield.
Broadcasting live from the bus while it travelled from one of the most affluent areas in the country to one of the most deprived, Emma was able to share her expertise both as a health reporter and a Sheffield local.
Along the way, interviews were done with charities, patients and the NHS England lead for health inequalities Professor Bola Owolabi who also lives in Sheffield and is a GP in neighbouring Derbyshire.
The goal was to highlight that it had been 12 years since a report from the local authority found a 10-year gap in female life expectancy between the south west of the city and the north east.
Yet in the intervening years, nothing had changed. In fact, due to austerity, a pandemic and cost of living crisis, the divide may actually be getting worse, NHS staff said.
Beginning at the Hallamshire Golf Club, travelling through Fulwood where Nick Clegg lived in his time as a Sheffield MP, through the city centre and up to Burngreave and Chapeltown, Emma was able to guide Naga through how the city and the circumstances for residents changed along the journey.
The programme set out to make clear that this is a picture replicated across the country. What is unique to Sheffield – due to its geography and industrial past – is the way the disparity is divided on a map.
“I was delighted to be asked to take part in this really important programme,” says Emma. “The producers had taken so much care to include a really wide range of voices but also to show what could be possible if communities were given the right funding and support.”
She added it’s probably the only time in her career she has used her in-depth knowledge of Sheffield where she studied at University and has lived for the past 18 years.
“Naga was relying on me to explain where we were along the route and what life was like for those living there,” she adds. “Doing a three-hour live broadcast from a moving bus was no mean feat and the team all handled it so brilliantly. I was very proud to be part of it. This is the kind of innovative reporting that is needed to shine a light on what inequalities in our society really mean for health and the NHS across the country.”
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