| THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM
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C&AG (NI)'s Report, para 1.2
Q 48
| 4. Mortality rates from CHD in Northern Ireland are among the highest in the world and although these have been falling, the rates in some other countries have been falling much faster. We are concerned that the rates remain very high and we asked DHSS why the improvement had not been more pronounced.
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| 5. The Department referred us to the rate of decline in mortality rates in the United States and accepted that all four countries of the United Kingdom had not seen as great a decrease as in the United States. It had been some ten years after the United States that health promotion strategies had commenced in Northern Ireland. DHSS contended that after this ten-year lag, the rate of decrease had been as great throughout the United Kingdom. It also stated that the greatest impact in terms of a fall in mortality rates was expected to be through prevention rather than treatment.
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| Conclusions |
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| 6. We are concerned that the mortality rates from CHD in Northern Ireland remain very high. We note that rates in some other countries have been falling much faster than Northern Ireland and it is evident that, if the Department had introduced health promotion strategies at an earlier date, this would have had an earlier impact on CHD mortality rates. We expect DHSS to give both prevention and treatment of CHD a high profile and to ensure that it keeps itself fully abreast of health promotion developments elsewhere.
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