Wokingham has the highest life expectancy in England at 84.04 years-old according to new research compiled by Health Connect Global, a health technology company focused on improving patient care.
Using Government data on everything from average life expectancy, the number of care home beds in each area, how many GPs there, A&E wait times, and referral times, and national data on how happy people are, Health Connect Global’s ‘Top Towns and Cities to Grow Old’ Index discovered where the best places in the country are for older people to live.
As the Government develops its 10-year health plan to move more patients from hospitals and into community care, making local healthcare more accessible is increasingly critical for older adults.
Wokingham claims 6th place overall in the rankings as the sixth best place to growing old, scoring exceptionally well with the highest average life expectancy in the country at 84 years, three years above the national average of 81. Longevity is complemented by strong happiness levels, with a score of 7.42, ranking 16th nationally.
The area also shares the top ranking for trauma and orthopedic services in the country, with 85% of referrals seen within 18 weeks, and has good A&E performance with 24.33% of patients waiting over 4 hours.
While Reading ranked tenth in the analysis, Wokingham secured 6th place making it one of the leading locations in the county, though Wokingham’s score is impacted by having fewer GP surgeries per 100,000 people than Reading, ranking 53rd nationally.
Dr Devan Moodley, CEO of Health Connect Global, said: “Across the country people are growing older and older, and depending more on the health and social care system as they live for longer with more complex health conditions.
“Wokingham having the highest life expectancy in England demonstrates what’s achievable.
“As a society, we need to do as much as possible to make sure that older people get the support and care they need, including better access to family doctors and the best possible support in care homes.
“The research shines a light on where we are doing brilliantly in this country, but also shows that so much more needs to be done, from investing in better community care, and using the latest technology, so everyone can live with dignity in their old age.”
o calculate a town or city’s score in the ‘Top 20 Towns and Cities to Grow Old’ index, each local authority was scored and ranked against four variables: average life expectancy, happiness index score, number of GP surgeries per 100,000 people, number of care home beds per capita, proportion of A&E wait times over 4 hours, and percentage of referral for Trauma and Orthopaedic Service within 18 weeks. The data for these variables was drawn from the most recently available Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases and NHS data sets.
To establish the list of towns and cities, large local authority areas were removed, and an average was taken of London Boroughs to form London waitings.
Each variable was ranked separately. A higher performance on a metric received a lower rank (for example, the longest life expectancy was ranked 1st, while the shortest received the lowest rank). This ranking approach was applied across all four variables.
The ideal rankings were therefore awarded to towns and cities with higher life expectancy, higher happiness scores, more GP surgeries per 100,000 people, and more care home beds per capita.
To establish the final rankings, each town or city’s individual variable ranks were converted into scores (e.g. 1st = 1, 20th = 20). These scores were then added together across all four variables to create a total score. The lower a town or city’s total, the stronger its performance overall. Final positions were assigned in order of total score (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).
