HEALTH bosses are to tackle the ‘big seven’ key health issues over the next year.

NHS Redbridge is set to target specific areas deemed to need extra attention, as well as its statutory requirement to increase life expectancy and deal with health inequalities.

The seven areas that will be targeted in the borough include increasing the rate of immunisation jabs among children for measles, mumps and rubella.

They also include improving cancer survival rates, minimising the number of people dying of strokes 30 days after diagnosis, and reducing death from cardiovascular disease.

More than 3,000 people in Redbridge died prematurely between 2001 and 2007 because of heart disease, stroke and cancer.

With the number of people suffering from long-term conditions rising to more than 35,000, the health service has also been tasked with improving management of diabetes and giving people more choice about where they die.

As childhood obesity rises, the final area to be tackled will be reducing weight problems among four- and five-year-olds and 10- and 11-year-olds.

Conor Burke, managing director for NHS Redbridge, said: “We’ve agreed the current list after lengthy debate with our partners and feel they collectively will have the biggest positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the community as a whole.”