Cancer deaths high in sick borough
HALTON’S status as an ill-health hotspot has been reaffirmed after figures revealed that the borough has the fourth highest rate of cancer death in England.
Halton was behind only Liverpool, Manchester and Salford in the country.
Cancer death in Cheshire East, the least affected area in the North West, was two-thirds the rate in Runcorn and Widnes.
The figures were published in Public Health England’s 2016 annual area profiles and measured the numbers of fatalities from the disease in the under-75s in 2012-14.
Halton also fared badly for female life expectancy, at 80.5 years – which is five years shorter than in areas such as Harrow and Westminster – and the levels of excess weight, which was the third worst in England and was measured as 74.8% of the adult population having excess weight.
The rate of physically active adults was low at 48.5%.
Smoking rates, including during pregnancy, were higher than average, as were stays in hospital for alcoholrelated harm.
But the borough had lower-thanaverage levels of tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, infant mortality and winter deaths.
Child obesity levels were also slightly lower than average.
A spokesman for Halton Council, which now has responsibility for public health, said that the data shows a singleyear snapshot and does not show the overall downward trend and ‘considerable fall’ in cancer deaths in recent years.
He said that the cancer mortality rate among under-75s has dropped 25% since 2005, adding that a lot of work has taken place to reduce the rates of resi- dents developing cancer and boosting survival.
Cancer is dealt with through a partnership approach between the council’s public health team, Halton Clinical Commissioning Group, hospitals and charity and third sector organisations to maximise outcomes for patients.
The local authority also promotes campaigns such as the NHS’s Be Clear On Cancer to boost early diagnosis and treatment success rate.
The spokesman said that Halton was well above the national target for urgent referrals from GPs to hospital where there was a possible cancer symptom.
He said that more than four out of every 10 cancers (42%) could be prevented and simple lifestyle changes such as not smoking, keeping a healthy body weight, eating a healthy balanced diet, cutting back on booze, keeping active and staying safe in the sun could significantly reduce the chances of developing certain cancers.
Cllr Marie Wright (health and wellbeing) said: “Halton is doing some great work to encourage people to take part in the national breast screening, cervical screening and bowel screening programmes.
“Everyone invited for a screening test should take part to make sure that any very early cancer changes can be ruled out or found and treated early.
“Halton is creating some new and exciting approaches to increase the number of people taking part in the bowel screening programme.
“More people in Halton are being diagnosed at earlier stages of cancer, meaning treatment is more successful and people are living longer following cancer than ever before.”
For advice on living a healthier lifestyle and reducing cancer risk, visit Halton’s health improvement team at http:// hit.activehalton.co.uk/ or call 0300 029 0029 for more information.