Life expectancy in Wigan can change by EIGHT YEARS depending on where you live

According to health bosses, if you are a man living in the Shevington with Lower Ground ward you are expected to live almost eight years longer than your counterpart in Leigh Central and Higher Folds – 81.7 years compared to 73.8 years, according to Local Health.

As a woman living in Winstanley your life expectancy would be the best in the borough at 84.5 years – almost eight years better off than women in Ince who have an average life expectancy of 77.1 years.

Further data from Public Health suggests that Wiganers are expected to live for two years less than the national average.

Historically, obesit y, smoking and alcohol consumption has been a problem in the borough, but health bosses have recognised one factor that links every issue in health – deprivation.

Rachael Musgrave, director of public health for Wigan, said: “The things that make the big difference are the building blocks of good health, so good housing, employment, friends and family, access to transport and education. That probably wasn’t a conversation we were having through the NHS with the focus being, of course, being their services.

“Essentially having the health and wellbeing board focussing on those building blocks is the shift, so to do that we have to have the right people around the table. We know that health is poorer in some regions of the borough.

“We need to focus on those places and get those building blocks strong.

“Rather than have conversations about health services, which is important, it is about how we design a place that enables people to stay well.”

Health bosses want to address these key areas of Wigan in order to balance out the playing field and improve health overall. Rachael believes these ‘building blocks’ of health can help do that.

The borough’s health bosses say that deprivation is the issue that linked all the areas with poorer health. The Office for National Statistics data shows 53.4 per cent of households in Wigan were deprived in at least one category when the most recent census was carried out.

Now Wigan has adopted the approach to incorporate health into every decision they make. These decisions include planning applications, how transport infrastructure would be implemented or even general decisions on policy made in the council chamber – all departments need to be on board.

How would better health be implemented in Wigan?

This is a huge task as laying the foundations of health in every council department and all aspects of society is not a short-term plan. The Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), which has been revitalised in recent months, will play an integral role in this change.

HWBBs were brought into all councils back in 2013 with the task of promoting greater integration and partnership between bodies from the NHS, public health and local government. Now that Greater Manchester has seen Clinical Commission Groups (CCGs) abolished and replaced with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) – the role of the board needs to change in the eyes of the council.

This is because there is now a separate committee, which Coun Keith Cunliffe, deputy leader and portfolio holder for Adult Social Care and Health also sits on, which effectively does the jobs of the HWBB in terms of services such as hospitals and clinics. This has spurred on the change of role for the HWBB in Wigan so that it does not become a copycat committee.

“Rather than dealing with health issues (in services), why don’t we look at preventing issues and look at how people are becoming ill so we can intervene early,” Coun Cunliffe said. “It was a question of how we can change and do things differently.

“The discussion with Rachael is how we can improve population health because even after having 10 years with a Health and Wellbeing Board there are still health inequalities in this borough. In wealth and health.

“So let’s focus on that aspect.”

Now the board will be open to charity partners and more businesses are being brought on board in order to get more buy-in for the ‘building blocks of good health. The new chair of the board Robert Armstrong – who has a long history working with different health bodies – sees this new strategy as a “common sense approach.”

He explained that getting multiple different bodies that represent various aspects of people’s lives represented on the board can only aid in their fight to improve health in the borough.

“The Home Help Service is one example, someone might not need personal care but need shopping done for them, that might be the kind of service we may need more or less of,” he said. “But we don’t know the scope or scale of what we need until we assess it.

“That is why it is so important to have as many parties delivering services in our area on the HWBB.”

But it is not just the board that can make an impact on good health, Ms Musgrave explained that one key issue in helping push good health is transport. Not only does it bring economic benefit for people getting to work and keeping them in the area, but active travel can also nurture healthy lives.

“We do loads of work to encourage active travel,” Ms Musgrave said. “So much more walking and cycling (is promoted).

“We know we have some challenges in this borough around overweight and obesity. The solution is not necessarily putting people through diet programmes.

“Yes we can do that but actually it is about getting people to incorporate health in everyday life. So our infrastructure is important on many levels.”

Bosses recognise that in order to bring better health, transport plays a key role in making sure people don’t become isolated from friends and family.

How the economy and health go hand in hand and the importance of social connection was something that became so obvious during the Covid pandemic which put the world on hold when it arrived back in late 2019. After the lockdown in March 2020, many businesses across the country suffered and are still struggling now three years later.

The aftermath of a global health crisis just shows how tightly intertwined health and the economy is, but the success stories of businesses from the pandemic always came as a result of community and social power.

“Health has worsened as a result of the pandemic,” Ms Musgrave continued. “So this is something we all have to focus on now.”

How will we see a difference in the years to come?

“In Wigan, depending on where you’re born, your life expectancy can change between seven and 10 years, that is significant,” Ms Musgrave said. “Now underneath all that, there is no magic bullet.

“We have to work on those basic building blocks. Deprivation is the underlying issue.

“Any health indicators we look at we see an increase in prevalence in localities.

“We have made a big difference in health indicators across Wigan. But we see some parts of Wigan enjoy better health than others.

“It is not fair and it is not right. If we can make improvements on those underlying issues we can really make a difference.”

The timescale as to when these changes could come into effect is blurred as making changes for the long term may not see communities reap the benefits for years to come from a statistics point of view.

“It takes a year or two to plan in advance for things like extra care housing,” Mr Armstrong said, giving an example. “The more of those built, the less pressure there is likely to be on admissions in hospitals for example, but you won’t see that instantly.

“The strategic thing is we want to keep people in their own homes and live a healthy long life. But these things will have an impact, and ultimately it will take pressure off.

“Things like that will reflect what we are doing.”

Seeing big differences in numbers smoking and respiratory disease are recent examples of campaigns that have seen results quickly.

“All this work we are doing now will impact on those who are children now for when they become adults,” Ms Musgrave concluded. “So the groundwork we are doing now should see the benefits of those children as they grow up.“We want to protect them so they grow up to be healthy adults.”

Health bosses confirmed that this work could help save millions for the NHS if they succeed in increasing health in the area. Decreasing the amount of people needing the health services would reduce pressure and cost on the NHS – making this vital work for future proofing the NHS.

“If we don’t do it, what is going to happen,” Mr Armstrong said. “As a country we can’t keep investing billions more into health services.

“There will never be enough money and then other services that need funding don’t get the money they need. So we have got to fix this from an economic perspective, so we are playing our part to create a healthy population that doesn’t have much demand.”

Coun Cunliffe likened this plan to building a house to make it waterproof. He says that if there is a leak you fix it, and hopefully the roof won’t collapse – but it is about making the house resilient, which he believes is not being done in terms of health.

“When things start going wrong and we don’t do anything the health services like A&E are dealing with the floods and the collapsed ceiling. You can say we need more people and money to stop the floors and to repair the floors and the ceiling and everything else, but we want the HWBB to mend ceilings and mend the water leaks.

“It is prevention and early intervention that will have a real impact on health.

“Yes it is a long-term plan, but the sooner you start the sooner you will see the impact.”