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Health commission to be launched

27/11/2007

A new Manchester health commission is being launched this week to improve the well-being of the city-region's 2.5 million patients.

The commission will place more emphasis on smoking-cessation services and will tackle alcohol misuse and obesity, as well as improving mental health.

It will also promote physical activity and make sure that every citizen benefits from the success of the region's booming economy.

Hilda Harvey, chair of Bury Primary Care Trusts, said that health bodies need to work together to tackle big health issues, "which are all linked to deprivation to a greater or lesser degree".

"We need to ensure that opportunities to reduce the health gap between the more affluent and more deprived parts of Greater Manchester are highlighted in everything we do," she added.

A recent study by the North West Public Health Observatory found that seven per cent of people in Salford and Rochdale are drinking "harmful" levels of alcohol. The figure rises to eight per cent in the City of Manchester.