A SHOCKING report today revealed that Blackburn is a health blackspot with large numbers of people suffering from lung and heart diseases.

The number of patients dying from lung diseases in central Blackburn is 90 per cent higher than the national average.

Heart disease also has a massive impact of the town with the number of cases 70 per cent higher than the national average.

People living in districts close to the town centre are also 70 per cent more likely to have a long term illness.

Districts particularly blighted include Brookhouse, Bastwell and the residential areas near Blackburn Cathedral.

The frightening figures are contained in the newly published 1997 East Lancashire Health Report put together by Dr Stephen Morton. The public health expert also revealed East Lancashire has 33 per cent more heart deaths than the average for the rest of the country.

The report, put together for East Lancashire Health Authority, argues huge changes are needed in the area. Dr Morton said: "Local variations in this report demonstrate high levels of health inequalities in East Lancashire. "There are inequalities between East Lancashire and the majority of other health authorities in England."

He added: "Tackling these inequalities will need joint action with other agencies and will need a focusing of energies around key health problems.

"Such health inequalities will not be turned around quickly. There is growing evidence that many are the result of health influences which act throughout an individual's lifetime and that childhood influences have a lasting impact on health chances."

But Dr Morton believes recent initiatives launched by the Government could help improve the picture.

And he has also welcomed the creation of the East Lancashire Partnership and the bid to form a Health Action Zone in the area. He said: "This report has been published at a pivotal time for East Lancashire Health Authority.

"There are a number of current national initiatives which will affect the way the NHS works and its partnerships with other agencies in both the public and private sectors."

SHOCK statistics today revealed that deaths from heart and lung disease in Burnley were 50 per cent higher than the UK average.

The figures confirmed that the town was one of the country's major public health blackspots.

The statistics, contained in the 1997 Public Health Report for East Lancashire, also showed that Burnley residents suffered 40 per cent more long term illness than the rest of the country.

Dr Stephen Morton, East Lancashire's public health director, spearheaded the report which analysed the health and illness of the six local authority districts in East Lancashire and 16 sub areas across the district.

The report showed wide variations in deprivation, premature death and chronic ill health.

Figures revealed that East Lancashire had about 33 per cent extra deaths from heart disease compared to the rest of the country. For Rossendale and Burnley, the figure was closer to 45 per cent and in the central part of Blackburn there were 70 per cent extra heart deaths. Deaths from respiratory disease in East Lancashire were also 33 per cent above average.

In Burnley the figure was even worse at 50 per cent, in Burnley East it soared to 75 per cent and in Blackburn Central to 90 per cent.

The figures also showed that Burnley and Blackburn Central had twice the rate of hospital admissions in the 15 to 64 age group than Ribble Valley.

Burnley continued to have the highest rate of births to teenage mothers at ten per cent above the rest of East Lancashire, while under 16 pregnancies were also highest in Pendle and Burnley at 15 per cent above national rates. Burnley and Pendle 12 year-olds also continued to have the worst dental health record in the district with 79 per cent more decayed, missing or filled teeth than children of the same age in the Ribble Valley.

Dr Morton said: "Local variations in this report demonstrate high levels of health inequalities in East lancashire.

"There are inequalities between East Lancashire and the majority of other health authorities in England."

"Tackling these inequalities will need joint action with other agencies and will need a focusing of energies around key health problems.

"There is growing evidence that many are the result of health influences which act throughout an individual's lifetime and that childhood influences have a lasting impact on health chances."

He said recent initiatives launched by the Government could help improve the picture and he also welcomed the creation of the East Lancashire Partnership and the bid to form a Health Action Zone in the area.

"There are a number of current national initiatives which will affect the way the NHS works and its partnerships with other agencies," in both the public and private sectors."

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