Of the 53 counties in the European region as defined by the WHO, just six sought help on health equality in 2006. This jumped to 12 in 2008 but now stands at 23.
"We will have a big problem dealing with this unbelievable increase in requests for help," said Erio Ziglio, head of the European office for investment for health and development at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He warned that the economic downturn could continue to erode health equality if adequate measures are not taken.
Health inequality goes hand-in-hand with other social issues such as unemployment and spending fewer years in education, said Ziglio, but data on the problem remains patchy.
Problem compounded by dearth of data
The WHO cautions that health statistics often present national averages which overlook disparities within countries. Differences of more than a decade in life expectancy can be seen within cities and regions across Europe.
Even in very sophisticated high-income countries there are difficulties in getting high-quality data that takes account of age, gender and social background, Ziglio said, stressing the need for good systems to monitor this at local, regional and national level.
When data is collected some authorities bury their heads in the sand while others try to take action, he said. However, even those that look to respond tend to launch pilot projects which are much too small to have an impact, with only a handful of countries having taken a coordinated approach.
No excuse for inaction, say NGOs
Campaigners warn that the dearth of hard data in some corners of Europe should not be held up as a reason for inaction.
Clive Needle, director of Eurohealthnet, a network of government agencies responsible for health in Europe, said measuring and understanding the problem are key to achieving this.
"But it's not just about building data. We already have enough information to act. All too often policymakers use the lack of data as an excuse not to act," he said.
Needle said there is already enough evidence to show that more equal societies perform better than unequal societies on a huge range of social issues including mortality, murders and teen pregnancies.
He said ironing out inequality in a sustainable and fundamental way would require society to tackle the inequalities in the distribution of power, money and resources – the "structural drivers of health inequality".
In addition, there is concern that political resistance and a skills deficit on the ground in local authorities is blunting the effectiveness of projects designed to tackle social and health inequality.
This is often compounded by the tendency to change policies every time a new government comes to office, sparking calls for a consensus-based approach to the problem which unites political constituencies and civil society.
Speaking at a conference in Brussels hosted by the European Policy Centre (EPC), experts also said the cross-border healthcare directive, which will allow greater patient mobility in Europe, will not exacerbate health inequalities as some critics have claimed.
