Councillors from across the region raised concerns over plans to tackle health inequalities as life expectancy in the most deprived areas continue to shorten.
Professor Kunonga, director of population health management at NHS North East Commissioning Service told councillors women in the most deprived areas die at an average of 76.8 years.
More than eight years shorter than more affluent women in the region who, according to NHS figures, pass away on average at age 85.
The picture is bleaker for North Eastern men in the most deprived areas who, on average, will die an entire decade before their more affluent contemporaries.
The reasons behind the gaps in regional life expectancy also differ between men and women. According to Professor Kunonga, cancer, and circulatory and respiratory problems are the major life-shortening factors in women from deprived areas.
For men, circulatory illness and cancer are also major life-shortening concerns. However, drugs, suicide, and deaths of undetermined natures reduce life expectancy in deprived men in the northeast more than respiratory diseases.
NHS services across the region have committed to reducing smoking to 5% of the adult population by 2030. NHS services have also committed to reducing the suicide rate in the region from 13 per 100,000 to below the national average of 10.4 per 100,000.
The North East NHS services will continue to engage with a national NHS programme, Core20PLUSS, to help identify the 20% of most deprived people and areas throughout the region. Such areas would then become an area of focus for health services
There is also an additional focus on maternity care, severe mental illness, and early cancer diagnoses within the programme. It aims to diagnose 75% of cancers by stage one or two.
These, among other initiatives, aim to increase general life expectancy and the age at which people contract long-term illnesses. Final proposals for a new regional health strategy are scheduled for December.
Whilst councillors were pleased with the verbal presentation, hosted at Gateshead Civic Centre, questions remained as to how these ambitions could be achieved.
Newcastle City councillor, and clinical oncology consultant, Wendy Taylor said: “Very good presentation, but none of it is new. When I trained as a doctor more than 40 years ago this was the situation and many things were tried without a huge amount of success.
“I think the one big success was the reduction in smoking, but now we have had the pandemic which has made things worse. People have gotten used to being at home, sitting in front of their computers, and eating less healthily because they don’t have money for fresh food.
“I’m not quite sure how we are going to change this, what exactly is going to make a difference with exercise and weight levels? I’m unsure about what’s new and how we will tackle it differently.”
Professor Kunonga responded: “What is new is the scale of the challenge. We have got some examples of things that we have tackled well. We reduced cardiovascular deaths faster than the national average.
“Before the pandemic, we were bang on the English average and in some areas we were below the average. If we can do it for this, let’s replicate that.”
