County health report is 'worrying'

Health bosses at Staffordshire County Council say they have concerns over a variety of health issues across the county as the authority published its Health and Wellbeing Outcomes Report for 2017.

Other areas where the county’s performance is worse than the average include infant mortality rates and excess weight in adults.

According to the report, 12.5 per cent of expectant mothers in Staffordshire smoke during pregnancy, compared to the national average of 10.4 per cent.

Domestic abuse rates per 1,000 people total 27.7, with the national average currently at 22.1.

Alcohol related hospital admissions totalled 740 in quarter three of 2016, compared to the national average of 648, while there were 490 hospital admissions for people aged between 10 and 24 due to self harming during 2015/16, compared to the national average of 431.

Councillor Susan Woodward, Staffordshire County Council’s shadow leader, said “It is long established that some of the health challenges in Staffordshire are very hard nuts to crack.

“The amount of concentration at the moment on hospital services and improving care at that stage has maybe taken away from the focus that we need to be putting on preventing these issues.

“Some of the areas where we are performing worse than the national average are worrying because they have such a negative and direct impact on people’s lives.

“If we are not careful, these will only get worse because they do require us to step in and try and change people’s attitudes, these are avoidable problems if tackled correctly.

“This will need social investment, we keep getting told this myth that it won’t but I have no doubts that it will.”

A statement from the report reads: “There are significant health inequalities across Staffordshire for key health and wellbeing outcomes which are in the main underpinned by determinants of health.

“There are a number of child health outcome indicators where Staffordshire is not performing as well as it could.

“There are concerns with performance against healthy lifestyle indicators such as excess weight and alcohol consumption.”

The Health and Wellbeing Board itself is made up of county council members, the police, CCGs and other organisations across the

Alan White, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing and Joint Chair of Staffordshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board, said: “ Staffordshire is overall a healthy county with life expectancy above the national average.

“There are some indicators where the county does particularly well for example school readiness, reoffending rates, injuries in road traffic accidents and smoking rates among adults.

“There are other areas where our health lags behind, such as example obesity, alcohol-related hospital admissions and smoking during pregnancy.

“People in Staffordshire are increasingly taking a greater interest in their health and wellbeing and this report provides a useful snapshot of the health of our residents and allows people as well as the NHS, councils, police and voluntary sector to understand what else we can do to stay healthy and independent into later life and plan for our old age.”