Comment: Action vital on city’s health

May 1 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE link between low incomes and poor health is well established, with Merseyside having one of the worst records in the UK.

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 shows that, across Mersey- side, 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. Around 85,000 people are harmful-drink- ers, 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.

These are shameful statistics which cannot be ignored, especially in the city of the great Victorian public health pioneer, Dr William Duncan.

Now, after a year-long assessment, and in the spirit of Dr Duncan, the Health is Wealth Commission has put forward a number of radical solutions to improve the state of the region’s health.

Plans include the establishment 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.

Although this will cost money, the benefits to both the economy and individual health of getting people back into work cannot be over-estimated, especially when set against the £2bn cost to the regional economy of having so many incapacity benefit claimants.

As Commission chairwoman Sue Woodward says, the regeneration of the city centre cannot mask the major poverty-related issues prevalent in the wider Merseyside region.

However, the Commission will need to prove that it is making a real difference on the ground, rather than simply producing more reports which may lead to accusations that it is stating the obvious but doing nothing about it.