Borough in Rude Health

11.21.14am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 27th Jun 2006

The NHS has published a review of health in the Borough which shows that, in many respects, the Borough is in remarkably good health: relatively long life expectancy; less obesity; less smoking related disease; less children's tooth decay; fewer strokes and heart related diseases; less diabetes. The only respect on which the Borough has a health problem is in road injuries and deaths.

Vincent Cable MP said: "Good health is shown by this analysis to be highly correlated with standards of living. Our Borough has low levels of deprivation with 13 of the 18 wards amongst the 25% least deprived in England and only 5 in the next 25%. There are, nonetheless, some problem areas. The number of people registered with GPs who have severe mental health problems is relatively high and, as I know from my casework, the help they get from the NHS is often inadequate."