The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Lincolnshire’s ageing population could be deemed “a significant threat to local services”, a report has warned.
The Annual Report of the Director of Public Health on the Health of the People of Lincolnshire concludes that the age profiles and predictions of changes in population in the county might be described as having an ‘Apocalyptic Demography”.
It says the term is used by social ageing experts to describe how statistics can be used to suggest the process is a significant threat to both public services and the economy.
“The primary nature of the risk described in the models is that, in a given population, the balance between the people who need support and the people able to provide it reaches a critical point,” the report continues.
The report, written by Tony McGinty, the interim director of public health for Lincolnshire on behalf of Lincolnshire
County Council, highlights the fact increasing life expectancy is similar to the national trend.
It also states that the average life expectancy of people living in Lincolnshire has increased in the last five years, but that there has been a decrease in the average number of years that we live healthily.
The average life expectancy of a female in the county is currently 83 and 80 for males.
However, the number of what it calls “healthy life expectancy” is around 63 for females and 61 for males. In 2009 both sexes could expect around 65 years of healthy life.
Recommendations set out in the report include reviews of the county council’s sustainability and transformation partnership, Clinical Commissioning Groups and the strategies of county and district council in their approaches to support healthier ageing.
