Wirral annual public health report says inequality and lifestyle choices remain greatest challenges to improving health

Dec 14 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

INEQUALITY between areas of Wirral and lifestyle choices remain the greatest challenges to improving people’s health, according to a report.

The annual report of Wirral’s director of public health says men living in the borough’s richest areas such as West Wirral can expect to live nearly 15 years longer than those from the poorest parts of the borough.

It also reveals:

In parts of Birkenhead deaths from heart disease are 15% higher than the national average.

More than 24% – around 17,000 – of children in Wirral are living in poverty, higher than the averages for the North West and England. In some pockets of the borough this figure is as high as 72%.

I Around 15% of Wirral mothers are smokers when their baby is born

The report concludes health professionals must target people from the most deprived areas – and men aged over 55 – if they are to make better progress narrowing the life expectancy gap.

Prefacing the report, Wirral’s director of public health, Fiona Johnstone, said more than four in five deaths in the borough now occurred in people over the age of 65.

But she said it was clear that the long term costs of ill health were unsustainable.

She said she welcomed changes to transfer public health improvement from the NHS to local authorities, giving local government powers to tackle health problems.

She added: “We have already achieved a great deal for the people of Wirral; the health of the population in general is improving, premature deaths from conditions such as heart disease are reducing and life expectancy is increasing.

“However, we still have considerable challenges ahead.”

Welcoming the report and the director’s comments, Councillor Anne McArdle, Wirral’s Cabinet Member for Social Care and Inclusion, said: ‘The report is a very useful distillation of public health work that is making a real difference to people’s health and wellbeing in Wirral today.

“Set against a background of significant organisational change currently taking place within the NHS and to public health services, it makes it clear that the key to success will be to focus on the outcomes that need to be achieved and on strong and effective partnership working.

“I would agree with the Director that the long-term costs of ill-health are unsustainable, and welcome the forthcoming changes to the public health system, which will enable us to exert influence where it is needed most.”