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New premature mortality website launched by Public Health England
Longer Lives, a new website showing the variation in early death rates has been launched by Public Health England (PHE).
It has been specifically designed to provide local authorities and the NHS with an insight into the top causes of avoidable early death in their areas such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, and how they compare to other areas with a similar social and economic profile.
Local authorities have a new responsibility for health. PHE has designed this website to support them in identifying their priorities and to help guide their health and wellbeing strategies. Using a traffic-light rating system, the website ranks areas showing those above average in tackling avoidable deaths as green, while those that still have more to do, are red.
Professor John Newton, Chief Knowledge Officer at PHE, said:
Longer Lives comes at a time when the health and care system is undergoing great change and will support local government in its new role as the champion for their public’s health.
Deaths in England under age 75 place us seventh out of 17 European countries for men and 15th for women, and must improve. For premature deaths caused by lung disease, we are 16th, and figures for liver disease deaths are worsening compared with European improvement.
Longer Lives is an initiative presenting a clear picture of health in local areas – where it is good and bad – so everyone involved can consider and agree how to make improvements from a common basis of knowledge. The data is provided alongside evidence of what needs to be done as well as case studies and will increase in scope and richness.
To access the website, please visit: longerlives.phe.org.uk