No quick fix to "horrifying" Highlands health problem

People living in deprived areas in the Highlands which have alarming health problems are to be asked what can be done to improve their communities’ well-being in the future.

NHS Highland intends to hold local consultations and seek the views of residents and groups in health blackspots, which include pockets of Inverness, Fort William, Wick, Alness and Invergordon.

It comes in the wake of a damning report published by NHS Highland which showed that health inequalities between the poor and rich had widened across the region.

Figures showed that men in the Merkinch neighbourhood of the Highland Capital die on average 14 years earlier than those staying in the more affluent Lochardil area only two miles away.

NHS Highland’s director of public health Dr Margaret Somerville admitted its strategies had not worked and 35,000 people were now living in poverty.

Dr Somerville said seeking the views of local people directly affected by health inequalities was vital so NHS Highland could work with the communities in drawing up new and better integrated measures to tackle the deep rooted problems.

Residents will have the chance to offer their views on what they think cause health inequalities in their community and what could be done to improve the situation.

However, Dr Somerville warned Highland Council at a meeting in Inverness yesterday (Thursday) there was no quick fix.

"Our equalities gap is widening," she said. "We don’t seem to be making much of a difference and have pockets which are not much worse than places in Glasgow. Closing the gap is going to take a generation."

A further 12,000 residents lived in "extreme" fuel poverty, said Dr Somervillie, who also blamed alcohol abuse for creating a range of health problems.

She said NHS Highland looked forward to making representations about applications for licenced premises after it started last month (for the first time.

The health board has said it could object to application for new pubs or off-sales if it thinks too many people are suffering harm from alcohol in certain areas.

It concluded 12 council wards, out of 22, are currently "over provided" but refused to say exactly where they are.

Poor diet, low rates of breast feeding, parents who smoke and tobacco consumption were also cited as major contributory factors.

Council leader Dr Michael Foxley, a retired GP, described the figures as "horrifying" and said they were caused by a cycle of deprivation.

"People follow their parents and their grandparents in these situation," said Councillor Foxley (Fort William and Ardnamurchan), who said targeting the health of infants up to the age of three-years-old could help break that cycle.

Urging mothers to breast feed and stop smoking was vital and could offer a "ray of hope" for the future, he said.

Councillor Drew Milllar, chairman of the council’s arms-length organisation High Life Highland, said 1,500 residents had now signed up to take part in a recently launched exercise and weight losing programme and the local authority was committed to working closely with NHS Highland on new approaches.

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