NHS fails to close health gap as tobacco and drink claim poorest

A report by director of public health Professor Paul Johnstone places Yorkshire in the "bottom three" regions of England in public health terms, having been rated "significantly worse than average" in nearly 70 per cent of the key areas assessed.

The 22 failing areas include binge-drinking, mental illness, smoking during pregnancy, drug misuse, diabetes, infant deaths, road injuries and physical inactivity in children.

The report concludes the average Yorkshireman will live around two years less than a man from the South-East, having experienced an extra five-and-a-half years of ill health and disability.

In a damning judgement on almost a decade of extra investment in NHS services, Professor Johnstone states: "While health has improved significantly in some parts of the region, the historic health inequalities gap between Yorkshire and the Humber and the south of the country is still evident – and it is not narrowing.

"The hard fact remains that real change in our region's health has not been fast enough nor sufficiently far-reaching. We have not achieved the scale of change needed to make a difference to health inequalities in our communities."

Concern was expressed about Professor Johnstone's findings yesterday by board members of the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority, the NHS body which oversees health services across the region.

"It's a graphic statement of doom," said non-executive director Janet Dean. "It's very depressing we are so poor on so many issues. It's really important we focus on how we can make people's lives better, as well as making our services better."

Professor Johnstone's report said there also remain "serious and historic health inequalities" within Yorkshire, highlighting glaring differences in the quality and length of life people can expect in different parts of the region.

A man from Ryedale in North Yorkshire can expect to be in good health until his mid-60s, and live until almost the age of 80, the report finds. By contrast, a man from Barnsley is likely to fall into poor health or disability in his mid-50s, and on average will live only until he is 74.

"Health inequalities that are preventable by reasonable means are unfair, unjust and financially unsustainable," the report states.

Professor Johnstone makes it clear there have also been many positive achievements over recent years, however. Yorkshire's physical activity rates are the most improved of any region, while the number of women screened for breast cancer has improved by 25 per cent in the last year. Women are also now more likely to survive breast cancer than before.

Professor Johnstone also highlighted the rapid reduction in smoking achieved during the first years of the last decade, with the number of adult smokers falling from 29 per cent in 2001 to 22 per cent 2007.

But he admitted to worries that the figure then rose to 25 per cent in 2008, with his report again revealing huge differences within the region. In Hull, more than 40 per cent of adults are smokers, compared with less than 20 per cent in North Yorkshire.

Amanda Sandford of anti-smoking campaign group ASH said: "A jump of three per cent is quite significant – this does suggest there has been a real rise in smoking rates in Yorkshire.

"The main message for health bosses has to be to carry on the good work they were doing, and re-double their efforts to stop this rise."