Health in Wales

Health in Wales refers to the overall health of the population of Wales. The Public Health Wales Observatory produces annual Demography Profiles for the Welsh local health boards and has done since 2009. The Observatory is part of the Health Intelligence Division of Public Health Wales. [1] As health is a devolved power, from the UK Government, it is the responsibility of the Minister for Health and Social Services for Wales and the Welsh Government, which are responsible for the running of the National Health Service in Wales, all aspects of public health and health protection in Wales, the Food Standards Agency in Wales, post-graduate medical education and any charges for NHS services.[2] The industrial heritage of the country has left a legacy of ill-health among the older generation, and Wales also has a higher percentage of over 60 than any of the other UK countries.

In 2007, Wales became the first UK country to introduce free prescriptions. to all its citizens,[3]. In April 2007, ahead of England, it became the first to ban smoking in NHS hospitals and in 2019, the first country in the UK to ban smoking in outdoor school spaces, playgrounds and hospital grounds.[4]

Healthy life expectancy was only 61.7 years in Wales in 2020, and just 50.7 years in the most deprived communities according to BHF Cymru.[5]

Causes of death

Welsh men were expected to live an average of 78.3 years and women 82.3 years in 2014 - about a year less than in England.[6]

West Wales and the valleys had the second-highest death rate from respiratory diseases of any region in Europe in 2015 at 152 per 100,000 population.[7]

The number of alcohol-related deaths in Wales was 504 in 2016 8.9% more than in the previous year. There were also 271 drug poisoning deaths, involving both legal and illegal drugs, compared with 238 in 2015.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Populations". NHS Wales. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-08-22. Retrieved 2013-04-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ Hart, Edwina. "HELPING TO IMPROVE WALES'S HEALTH: FREE PRESCRIPTIONS THREE YEARS ON" (PDF). NHS Wales. NHS Wales. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "Wales to ban smoking outside hospitals and schools in UK first". Guardian News & Media Limited. The Guardian. 25 May 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Thousands of deaths in Wales every year could be prevented according to BHF Cymru". News from Wales. 13 February 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "Life expectancy increases in Wales". BBC. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Ballas, Dimitris; Dorling, Danny; Hennig, Benjamin (2017). The Human Atlas of Europe. Bristol: Policy Press. p. 72. ISBN 9781447313540.
  8. ↑ "Alcohol-related deaths on the rise in Wales". Pharmaceutical Journal. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
This article is issued from Offline. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.