North bids to come up with cure for deadly health gap

The North Health Equity project will bring together health chiefs, academic experts, council chiefs and the private, voluntary and community sectors to find workable solutions to bridge the gap which in some parts of the North means rates of early death are more than double those in the South, with people in the North typically living shorter lives with a greater burden of illness.

Efforts will focus not just on improving health services but look at the economy, housing, education and other factors that influence health and wellbeing in the face of expectations that the North will lag behind in the recovery following the recession.

The move could, however, put officials in conflict with Ministers, particularly in areas including cuts to welfare and employment policies.

And it comes as health chiefs consider proposals to adopt changes to NHS funding which would see cash diverted from the North to the South to focus on the needs of growing numbers of elderly people.

Draft figures suggest every part of the NHS in Yorkshire would lose out under the changes, costing the region £416m in total and the North £722m overall.

Prof Paul Johnstone, Public Health England’s regional director in the North, said the aim was to get a “fairer health deal for people in the North”.

He said it was already clear that a key part of reducing the gap in health outcomes involved economic regeneration and job creation.

“Because of poorer health, people in the north of England have shorter lifetimes and suffer more years of ill health than people in the South,” he said.

“People don’t just get ill because of the health services that are – or are not – available to them.

“People get ill because they can’t find a job, they haven’t got enough money, they feel powerless, they don’t live in a safe, clean, warm place, they didn’t get a good start in life or had a poor education and because they live in a place that wasn’t well planned to live an active, productive life.”

In Yorkshire, 12 out of the 15 council areas have among the worst records on premature deaths before the age of 75 in England, with only North Yorkshire, York and the East Riding ranked among the best in the country.

In Hull, the rate of premature death is among the five worst in the country, with a toll nearly double that in affluent parts of the South.

Prof Johnstone said he wanted to see North Health Equity bring together individual efforts to trigger “significant change in the health of the people of the north of England”.

The burden of ill health costs taxpayers across the country and tackling it would bring benefits for all, he added.

“Inequalities have an impact on the whole country, not just the North,” he said.

“Where there are very wide inequalities, the whole of society is affected, rich and poor alike.

“This is a journey we need to set out on.

“Everybody benefits with a reduced North-South divide – whatever the individual arguments about economics or infrastructure.

“Dying years before the average life expectancy and suffering ill health for more years of life has to be the ultimate inequality.

“We need a conversation about what it is that can be done to start reducing inequalities and the North-South divide.

“We can then set out the evidence of what we think needs to be done. The difference will be made on the ground.”

Prof Johnstone said he accepted some findings could conflict with Government policy but it was important to set out the facts based on the evidence of what worked.

“We need to provide credible, independent advice and I think that is what the Government has set us up to do,” he said.

The biggest causes of early death under the age of 75 in England are cancer, heart disease and stroke, lung and liver disease, with figures from Public Health England showing most areas of the North are worst hit by premature deaths.

Eleven out of 15 council areas in Yorkshire have among the worst rates of premature death from lung disease in the country and nine out of 15 have among the worst records on early deaths from heart disease and cancer. Five out of the 15 have the among the worst records on early deaths from liver disease.

People in Hull have the poorest health in the region, with former areas of heavy industry in South and West Yorkshire also faring badly compared with the national average.

Manchester has the worst record on early deaths in the country, with 455 fatalities before the age of 75 per 100,000 people in 2009-11, compared with 200 per 100,000 people in Wokingham in Berkshire.