Wakefield's health in crisis

Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust wants to cut the NHS at a time when people across Wakefield District are struggling with serious health problems.

The Wakefield Poverty and Prosperity Commission published a report last December stating that health problems are made worse by low incomes.

It found that in Wakefield:

• Early deaths from heart disease, stroke and cancer are all worse than the national average
• More than one in ten of the working age population are not in work. Ill health is a major contributory factor
• People living in the most well-off neighbourhoods of Wakefield can expect to live almost 9 years longer than those living in the poorest areas
• The same inequality shows up in education too. Young people in richer areas are more than four times as likely to go to university as those in the poorest areas