Eating too much, drinking too much and smoking more than the national average is a borough-wide problem in Wigan, a health boss has claimed. This comes as the director of public health for the borough, Rachel Musgrave, claimed that life expectancy in England is falling ‘for the first time since World War Two’.
A report delivered to Wigan Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board discussed how they plan to improve life expectancy as well as smoking, obesity and alcohol consumption - where Wiganers are reportedly worse compared to the national average. The coronavirus pandemic was believed to have impacted on the council’s health improvements in the region, Wigan Town Hall was told on November 23.
“Life expectancy is reducing for the first time in decades, the first time since World War Two,” Ms Musgrave said.
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“We have the continuing issues we saw before the pandemic and we have issues that have come since the pandemic. We would like to take the focus of this board around improving health [in these areas].”
She went on to echo what was said in the report about the issues Wigan faces in regard to deaths from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancers, liver disease, and mental health in Wigan being higher than in England. She added that there are significant differences in the health experienced by residents with disparities between different socioeconomic groups.
Despite this, the report claimed: “In the 10 years since the establishment of HWB’s we have made notable progress in Wigan supporting people to live healthier lives. Over many years, we have reduced deaths from heart disease, respiratory illness, and cancers, acting on things that cause these illnesses.”
With the fall of Clinical Commissioning Groups to Integrated Care Systems in Greater Manchester, Coun Keith Cunliffe believed this was an opportunity for the board to make a difference and solve these issues more actively, the chamber heard. This would be done with the addition of more members to the health board.
Alongside current council portfolio holders, this list of new additions included voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector, local business sector representatives, GMP Chief Superintendent and local further and higher education providers.
The Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) is responsible for improving and protecting the health of all 329,000 Wigan residents - this is what they plan to achieve going forward into the new year.
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