A report has laid bare the stark health inequalities that separate men and women living in different parts of the Harrogate district.
Councillors in the Harrogate borough met this week to discuss an annual health report written by North Yorkshire County Council’s director of public health, Louise Wallace.
The report draws on government public health data that breaks down average life expectancy levels by council ward boundary.
These figures show that men in Bilton Woodfield live, on average, until 74 whereas just a few miles away in Oatlands they live to 87.
Bilton Woodfield is the most deprived ward in Harrogate whereas the Oatlands ward includes some of the most expensive streets in Yorkshire, including Fulwith Mill Lane.
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Ms Wallace said there is a higher prevalence of factors such as smoking in more deprived areas and that employment types and education can contribute to the differences in life expectancy.
The data also reveals that women live to 91 in Claro, which includes villages north of Knaresborough. However, in Knaresborough Eastfield the average life expectancy for females is far lower at 78.
The average life expectancy for men in England is 79 and for women it’s 83.
Improving lifestyles
The report also said the number of higher risk drinkers in England has increased since the pandemic, with the heaviest drinkers and those in lower socioeconomic groups increasing their consumption the most.
John Mann, Conservative councillor for Pannal, asked Ms Wallace what the council is doing to help people stop drinking and drug-taking in the Harrogate district.
He said:
“I’m interested in reducing excessive drinking, I mean we all like a drink, but some people go to excess which is not good for you.
“Drinking at home or socially is a bit addictive and does affect family life and career progression and health.”
Ms Wallace said the council is currently drafting a new alcohol strategy to replace the previous document from 2014-2019.
She added:
“When people need support around alcohol we have a commissioned service with Horizons but we need to get some whole population messages out there.
“You’re absolutely right for the potential of excessive drinking and what that might mean. We’re seeing an increase in alcohol-related admissions or illnesses as a result of excessive alcohol use.”
Men live 10 years longer in Harrogate than Knaresborough, report shows
Men live 10 years longer in Harrogate than Knaresborough, according to a new report.
The North Yorkshire Director of Public Health annual report 2021-22, published today, shows male life expectancy in Harrogate is 85 compared with 75 in Knaresborough.
Women live on average to be 87 in Harrogate and 79 in Knaresborough. In Ripon, men and women live on average to 79 and 84 respectively.
The commentary in the report suggests the difference is down to deprivation. It says:
“Large parts of North Yorkshire have better than average life expectancy when compared with England as a whole. However, there are areas where life expectancy is worse, particularly in Scarborough, but also in parts of Selby, Harrogate and Richmondshire.
“The gap in life expectancy between our most deprived and least deprived wards can be as much as 11 years for men and 10 years for women.
An image from the report showing life expectancy.
The report says there was a “marked decrease in life expectancy between 2019 and 2020 for both England and Yorkshire and Humber”, adding:
“This has improved slightly for 2021, but the longterm impact of the pandemic on mortality is yet to be fully determined.”
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In a section on ‘lessons learned’ the report says the rural nature of North Yorkshire presented challenges responding to covid.
It says:
“For North Yorkshire in particular, we learned to adapt our response to the pandemic to ensure that the rural nature of large parts of the county did not create additional barriers to access covid support.
“For example, we had to adapt the standard covid testing model of having a small number of large testing centres in urban areas to provide multiple mobile options that could travel across the county to rural areas.
“Similar issues were seen with access to vaccination sites; more sites opened up across the county as the pandemic progressed, but additional services eg voluntary transport provision were required to expand access to those unable to travel, and weekend clinics were added to help enable working age population to attend.”
Report author Louise Wallace, director of public health at North Yorkshire County Council, said in her foreword:
Public health boss ‘cautiously optimistic’ worst of Omicron wave is over“The pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of everyone in North Yorkshire. The ways in which we work, interact, travel, socialise, learn, live, bring new life, experience illness, loss, and death, have all been affected.
“However, there remain parts of our population who experience more than their fair share of the burden of these impacts, with the pandemic only widening pre-existing inequalities across our society.”
The director of public health for North Yorkshire says she is “cautiously optimistic” that the county has seen the worst of the Omicron wave as covid infections continue to fall.
Louise Wallace told a meeting of North Yorkshire’s Outbreak Management Advisory Board today that the latest figures showed a “much better picture” with a 43% drop in the county’s weekly infection rate which now stands at 1,048 cases per 100,000 people.
Latest figures for the Harrogate District show that the rate has fallen to 1,136 per 100,000 people.
However, Ms Wallace said infections were still higher than previous months and that this was putting pressure on care homes, hospitals and schools.
She said:
“We are now seeing a decline in some of the numbers and I’m really hopeful that they are heading in the right direction.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we are turning the tide, but we still do have 854 daily cases.
“And of course we have had changes to testing arrangements over the last few weeks which may be having an impact on some of the data.”
Latest figures show there have been seven covid-related deaths in North Yorkshire in the last week – fewer than this time last year when the county was averaging five deaths each day.
NHS staff told today’s meeting that despite this improving picture, many patients were still being hospitalised with the virus.
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They also expressed concerns that fewer people are now testing for covid and that this was “skewering” the true rates of infections and estimates on how many more patients could need hospital treatment.
This comes as the self-isolation period for people who test positive has been cut to five full days in England.
From today, people will be able to leave isolation after negative lateral flow tests on days five and six in a move to ease pressure on staffing shortages across the private and public sectors.
This was announced last week by the government which is reportedly seeing “encouraging” signs that the Plan B restrictions in England could be removed after a review on January 26.
The current restrictions include guidance to work from home, the widespread use of face coverings and NHS Covid passes for some events.
Meanwhile, teenagers aged 16 and 17 can now book their booster vaccines online from today. The top-up jabs are also being made available to clinically vulnerable 12 to 15 year olds.
The sharp rise in coronavirus cases in North Yorkshire is “being driven by school-age children”, the county’s director of public health has said.
Louise Wallace told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Outbreak Management Advisory Board today that case numbers have been climbing since mid-September with most infections among school children and other young people.
She also said it was “quite unusual” that the county’s infection rate had climbed above the England average.
Ms Wallace said.
“This is being driven by what we are seeing in terms of cases through education settings
“We are looking at the data everyday trying to understand any patterns or trends, but from what we can in the terms of the age bandings from the most recent cases, they do seem to be coming from school children and young people.”
Schools and colleges returned at the start of September and twice-weekly testing is being used to limit infections, while rules on social distancing and face masks have been scrapped.
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Ms Wallace said headteachers were receiving continued support from public health teams and that she was hopeful the increase in infections would ease over the coming weeks.
She said:
“We are seeing an increase in the daily rate across North Yorkshire and we are slightly above the England average which is quite unusual as we usually track it or are slightly below.
“But I am hopeful that this will start to settle and fall back in line as the next few weeks go by.”
The latest figures show North Yorkshire’s weekly infection rate per 100,000 people currently stands 452 – above the England average of 332.
A breakdown of the numbers shows the Harrogate district has the highest infection rate after this week surpassing its previous record of 559 in July to reach 547.
Meanwhile the Harrogate district has recorded a further 128 per 100,000 people, according to latest Public Health England figures.
Elsewhere, 128,163 people have received a first covid vaccine in the Harrogate district and 120,343 have had a second dose.