‘We must start to focus on good health’

‘We have to have a mindset is that good health is an asset, we mustn’t consider ill health a burden. We must turn the argument around,’ said Dr Nicola Brink, who was commenting on the Bailiwick’s latest mortality report that was published last week.

A total of 1,735 deaths were recorded were recorded in Guernsey and Alderney between 2019 and 2021, which was in line with the previous 20 years.

The life expectancy for children born over that period is 83.4 years, higher than the UK, where it is just less than 81.

The report said that life expectancy for women was 85.5 for women, but only 81.2 years for men.

But the healthy life expectancy swings the other way, with men having 64.5 years and women 63.2 years.

Dr Brink said that the report brought up two potential health inequalities for men. The first was avoidable mortality, and the second was life expectancy versus healthy life expectancy.

‘If you look at life expectancy, women have a longer life expectancy than men. But if you look at healthy life expectancy, men have a longer healthy life expectancy than women.

‘So you’ve got to ask yourself what happens? Why are men, if they have a longer healthy life expectancy, living for a shorter period of time, and that raises a potential health inequality.

‘Are people not accessing screening programmes? Are they not accessing health care? These are the questions we need to ask. And that’s why I like data and evidence because it provides us with information so we can have evidence based policies. But importantly, on evidence from the Bailiwick of Guernsey itself.’

She said as well as the health inequality of men, there were other factors to consider.

‘If you want people to work longer, we have to have a healthy population,’ she said.

‘If we want to continue to raise the age of retirement, it’s really important that we have a healthy population.’