Christchurch Health update

As Port folio holder for a Safe and Healthy Community in Christchurch I always await the end of June with much trepidation.The reason is simple it is then that Dorset NHS annual health profiles are published and it is from these that I set my sights for the next year. These are fascinating statistics, taken from NHS records assessed by statisticians and published to give us a snapshot of health in Christchurch. For obvious reasons the stats are about two years out of date but nevertheless they provide an interesting insight into Christchurch health and well being. My summary is that Christchurch health is better than the average in England although the proportion of people diagnosed with Diabetes is much higher. Deprivation in Christchurch is also lower than average but there are still health inequalities within this area. Men living in the least deprived areas can expect to live about six years longer than those in the most deprived areas. For women this is five years. Death from heart disease and strokes have declined and are below national average as are early death from cancer although the trend in this area is creeping up to national average.Obesity among children is of concern although the rates of physically active children is above average. Rates of death on the roads are similar to national average which is of great concern to me, amounting to some 26 persons being killed on our roads every year. All this information and a great deal more is available on www.healthprofiles.info. If you want to know how long you are going to live, check it out, it is a fascinating read.