Radical plans to tackle Merseyside’s health crisis

May 1 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

THE biggest-ever study into the well-being of Merseysiders has today revealed radical solutions to improve the shocking condition of the region’s health.

The Health is Wealth Commission has released the report after a year-long assess-ment of how low incomes affect health and well-being.

Plans include the establish-ment of a world-class institute in Liverpool to study local health improvement, which has already received £2m of funding, and the introduction of Health Impact Assessments for planned fast food outlets and licensed premises. Despite billions of pounds of investment, Liverpool – according to new figures – ranks bottom out of 354 English towns and cities as the most socially deprived local authority area.

The study also shows levels of incapacity benefit stand at almost 75% higher than the British average.

Commissioner Frances Street, chairwoman of Wirral Primary Care Trust, said: “The development of a task force to reduce the numbers claiming incapacity benefit is incredibly important.

“It is costing the regional economy £2bn a year and the health benefits of getting people back into work are huge.”

Across Merseyside, nine people die every day from smoking-related diseases, five people die every day from heart disease or stroke and six people a day die from cancer – with Halton having the highest cancer death rate in England.

Around 85,000 people are harmful-drinkers, only one in 10 are physically active, and 178,000 people feel in poor health.

More than 8,100 people are admitted to hospital every year with alcohol-specific conditions – 22 every day – and there are almost 15,000 problem drug users across the city region, the highest number is in Liverpool.

Commission chairwoman Sue Wood-ward said: “As we count the cranes on the Liverpool skyline and enjoy the rave reviews in the Sunday supplements, the time is right to stand up and face the elephant in the room.

“Generations of families dependent on benefits, the spiralling problem of alcohol misuse, the creation of a super underclass, an invisible army of people disconnected and cut off from the opportunities created on their own streets, lives cut short through inequality and deprivation.

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

The 15 commissioners have been taking evidence for a year and have put forward a number of radical solutions that they say will see the Liverpool city region becom-ing a trailblazer in tackling poverty-related issues. They will release another report in September.

The action plan includes:

The establishment of a world-class institute in Liverpool to study local health improvement, which has already received £2m of funding;

A sensitive examination of the vast numbers of people receiving Incapacity Benefits to develop a model for a North West Worklessness Task Force, to help ease people disengaged from a working life back into mainstream employment;Š

The first-ever procurement Concordat in the UK that will see major public and private bodies signing up to buy goods and services from local sources;

A ground-breaking Health at Work Charter, a UK first, to promote work-based rules for employees and employers;

An attack on problems linked to alco-hol, smoking and diet that will see Health Impact Assessment processes introduced for the first time in England, using the planning system;

Taking a national lead in putting health and well-being at the centre of urban planning, re-kindling the pioneering work of Dr William Duncan, who set up the world’s first Public Health Department in Liverpool.

Mrs Street says she is excited by the ideas the document presents: “This report has solid and do-able solutions to very serious and shocking issues and that is what we need.

“The new institute is ground-breaking, with what we hope will be an very exciting research programme. We want to develop this concept further and the next step would be to get the private sector involved.

“Our report reflects the commitment we all have to the city and the surrounding area. It is a great time for Liverpool and we want to build on that.

“We now need people’s reaction, the document has been produced for discussion.”

The commission is now hoping to continue for a further year, to try and progress its proposals.

FOR more information, log on to healthiswealthcommission.org.uk

OPINION: PAGE 10

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