Life expectancy in Moreton Hall

Article Date: 5th November 2015

As a GP practice and healthcare clinic, it is our business to pay close attention to the general health of our local population. It was of great interest then to find out from an influential report that we are located in a community where on average people can expect to live longer than the vast majority of people living in other places in the UK.

The Care Quality Commission report into heart disease and strokes made the national headlines when it was published in 2009. It found that Moreton Hall residents have an average life expectancy of 93.4 years – the highest in the country.

A number of papers picked up the story and focussed on the discrepancy between places like Moreton Hall and locations where life expectancy is far below the national average, such as Middlehaven in Middlesborough where people were found to live for an average of 67.8 years.

As a basis of the report, the health watchdog analysed data on the performance of 8,300 GP practices and 152 primary care trusts and found a variations in the quality of services for sufferers of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The report says residents in deprived areas – where death rates from heart attacks and stroke are highest – receive the worst service from their GPs.

While we take no satisfaction whatsoever in the discrepancies highlighted, as the main healthcare practice in Moreton Hall we are proud to have played our part in helping people in the community achieve such enviable levels of health and longevity.

Of course, good quality healthcare is just one element that contributes to a long and healthy life. There are a whole range of lifestyle factors that play their part. Not smoking, keeping alcohol consumption down and watching your weight all help to keep our wellbeing high and at Mount Farm Surgery we can offer advice on all these issues.

Access to good socio-economic opportunities – that is high employment and good housing – and keeping active are also key and in Bury St Edmunds we are blessed with having many green spaces where we can walk and take other forms of exercise.

We must consider ourselves lucky to live in an area where people are able to attain such a high quality of life. At Mount Farm Surgery we certainly intend to work hard at helping the local population stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.