Councillors react to 'harrowing' annual Warwickshire health report

Warwickshire's annual report from the director of public health makes for harrowing reading and highlights the deadly impact of austerity according to the Labour group leader on the county council.

The report, which will be published on March 22, was presented to this week's WCC full council meeting with its aim to improve the health and wellbeing of the county's population and reduce the health inequalities which exist.

Warwickshire's director of public health Dr Shade Agboola explained that the current pandemic had impacted on everybody's health and wellbeing.

She said: "It has shone a light on the health inequalities which already existed in Warwickshire – for example, life expectancy is 8.2 years lower for men and 5.7 years lower for women in the most deprived areas of Warwickshire than in the least deprived areas.

"This year's report is vital to raise awareness of the impact of Covid-19 on our residents, highlighting what we must put in place to support everyone to recover from the pandemic, improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities."

There was unanimous cross-party support for the report but Cllr Helen Adkins (Lab, Leamington Willes) flagged up the amount of work that needed to be done in Warwickshire.

She said: "It does make some pretty harrowing reading in places – a higher than national average in depression, bowel cancer, diabetes, smoking prevalence, obesity and incidents of self-harm. There is clearly a huge amount of work to be done.

"We have to look at life holistically – everything links with everything else. If you take out the investment in people's lives then it leads to increased health inequalities.

"It worries me when the portfolio holder says that austerity leads to transformation and smarter working. Well I would say that austerity has led to people's deaths and I think we really need to be honest, open and serious about this because you cannot take money out of people's lives, out of the public sector and then expect things to get better."

Cllr Dave Parsons (Lab, Polesworth) said that while it was right to celebrate the achievements it was also important to acknowledge the problems.

But Cllr Kam Kaur (Con, Bilton and Hillside) highlighted some of the positives. She said: "What transformation has demonstrated for the last five or six years is that we still provide good quality services to our residents and we are also meeting the demands of this council. It has given us opportunities to be able to invest."