Health inequality across Telford revealed – and it’s not great
People in Muxton & Lilleshall live an average of 8.2 years longer than residents in Woodside as life expectancy rates ‘stall’ across Telford & Wrekin borough, data shows.
Data is used to plan for services, including in health and social care, and a meeting this week is set to view a snapshot of the borough with information on what people die of and if it is ‘preventable’.
Stark differences between the areas where people can expect to live the longest – and shortest – lives is laid bare in a report to the Health & Wellbeing Board on Wednesday (May 21).
“Life expectancy (for men) ranges from 82.8 years in Muxton & Lilleshall to 74.0 years in Woodside, a difference of 8.2 years,” says the report.
For women the difference in the two areas is 6.1 years with life expectancy at birth at 85.8 years in Muxton & Lilleshall compared to 79.7 years in Woodside.
Across the borough the report says that in the period 2021-23 men born then could expect to live for 78.3 years, compared to 79.1 years for England.
“Life expectancy at birth for men has remained significantly worse than the England average for the past 15 years,” says the report.
Men also live on average for 3.7 fewer years than women.
Life expectancy increased from 2001 to 2012-14 but since then the increase has “stalled”, says the report. It has ‘stalled’ for both men and women.
The report also looks at healthy life expectancy – where people live in full health – which is a crucial figure in social care budget setting.
The trend in healthy life expectancy for men has worsened by 4.3 years from a peak of 61.4 years in 2014-16 to 57.1 years in 2021-23, the report says.
Women can expect to have 56 healthy years, worse than the England average of 61.9 years and 1.1 years fewer than men.
The situation for the number of healthy years that women can expect to live has declined by 3.9 years since 2016-18, the report shows.
Officials have also looked at causes of death and found that there were 439 deaths from all cancers in the borough in 2023, decreasing from 512 in 2022.
Cancers account for a quarter (25 per cent) of deaths of residents in the borough, which is worse than the rate of death in England.
Telford & Wrekin also recorded a worse rate of death from respiratory diseases than the England rate. There were 237 deaths from respiratory disease in the borough in 2023, accounting for 13 per cent of all deaths, and an increase from the 186 deaths in 2022.
In 2023 there were 255 premature deaths of Telford and Wrekin residents from causes considered preventable. The rate of preventable early deaths has increased and remains worse than the average for England.
The number of infant deaths increased from 31 between 2020 and 2022 to 38 between 2021 and 2023.
“The rate of infant mortality in the borough is worse than the England average, having previously been similar to it since 2014-16,” the report says.
Officials are set to tell councillors that the report “provides insight into needs of communities across the borough, informing all council priorities.
“Information and intelligence from population statistics is used by finance to inform financial modelling and forecasting of potential demand for care services in both adult social care and children’s safeguarding services.”
The report adds: “Data identified and developed as part of this work will be helpful in refining the future financial models necessary to inform the immediate budget strategy and medium-term financial forecasting of the expenditure on care.
“It will also help to identify the financial impact on the council of changes and demands elsewhere informing the potential growth in demand for preventative and public health services.”
The report adds that intelligence on life expectancy and preventable mortality provided by the council’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment has “clear reference to the Government and NHS ambitions to shift from illness to prevention, which is expected to strongly feature in the forthcoming NHS 10 year plan.”
Story by David Tooley – Local Democracy Reporter
Pic: Across Telford by Telford Live
