Seaside city the place a couple of in 20 individuals reside in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ well being

A seaside city has been named as one of many unhealthiest locations to reside in England and Wales.

According to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) information, Hartlepool in Durham has a number of the highest charges of individuals residing unwell.

Statistics taken from the 2021 census revealed that 7.9 p.c of residents had been in “bad” or “very bad” well being.

This positioned the port city above the nationwide fee of 5.4 p.c and the north east determine of 6.9 p.c.

The information additionally confirmed that 11.3 p.c of individuals in Hartlepool had been classed as disabled.

And 6.8 p.c of residents stated they supplied excessive ranges of unpaid care to individuals who had been unwell or disabled.

Overall it was ranked the tenth least wholesome city out of 331 locations in England and Wales.

The figures highlighted vast disparities in well being throughout the nation as some areas reported having greater than thrice the quantity of individuals in dangerous well being in comparison with others.

But throughout England and Wales well being barely improved within the 2021 census from 10 years earlier than.

In whole, 47.5 p.c of individuals throughout each nations reported their well being as being very “good”.

Compared to in 2011, this was a rise of two.5 proportion factors.

In 2021, 1.2 p.c reported being in “very bad” well being – a drop from 1.4 p.c in 2011.

And the share who described their well being as “bad” additionally fell, from 4.7 p.c to 4.5 p.c.

The 2021 census noticed the borough of Elmbridge in Surrey ranked as probably the most wholesome place with 88 p.c of individuals saying they had been in “good” or “very good” well being.

Tower Hamlets in London and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales had been ranked joint worst for well being with 9.5 p.c of individuals saying they had been in “bad” or “very bad” well being.

In response to the figures, Deepak Dwarakanath, chief medical officer at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, stated: “Hartlepool and the entire Tees Valley has some of the greatest challenges with health inequalities in the country.

“While we are always here for people when they need care in our hospitals and community settings, we want to help people before it gets to this stage.

“We are regularly working with our partners in public health, local authorities, the voluntary sector and local community to tackle these inequalities and give our population more opportunities.

“Several projects have been set up over the last few months and years to help with this. This includes Making Every Contact Count, a joint NHS England and Public Health England initiative.

“The trust now has a team in post to raise the profile of this initiative and ensure our staff are using their day-to-day interactions with patients, relatives and their own colleagues to support people in making positive changes to their lives to improve their overall mental and physical health.

“As an organisation with Public Health England Active Hospital Status, we also work with our local partners to encourage our patients to be more active when in hospital and to continue to do so in their lives.

“A year ago we also set up a specialist alcohol care team which has assessed more than 1,000 patients coming into hospital and helped prevent more than 100 admissions into hospital.

“The team works closely with our stop smoking service to support patients and offer ongoing care once people are discharged from hospital back to their homes.

“Though we continue to face very stark challenges across our region, we are making significant progress in helping reduce these health inequalities.”

Hartlepool Borough Council was approached for remark.