THE HEALTH Secretary today condemned the “shocking” number of early deaths caused by bad living in Southampton - compared to the rest of Hampshire.

Jeremy Hunt said the huge gulf in death rates from the “four major killers” - cancer, heart disease and stroke, lung disease and liver disease - was unacceptable.

He challenged local health chiefs to close the gap, saying: “People's lives are needlessly cut short and that cannot continue unchecked.”

Health bosses across Southampton and Hampshire have already vowed to use these figures to focus their efforts to ensure as few people as possible die prematurely.

Mr Hunt spoke out as he published new statistics revealing there were more than 13,000 premature deaths - before the age of 75 - across Hampshire, between 2009 and 2011.

While Hampshire County Council was ranked among the best-performing areas, Southampton City Council was given a “red light” as one of the worst.

There 119 early deaths from cancer in Southampton per 100,000 people, over the three-year period - compared with 94 in Hampshire.

When it comes to heart disease and stroke, Southampton residents (67 per 100,000) are almost 50 per cent more likely to die prematurely than people in Hampshire (45).

That gulf is just as wide for early deaths from lung disease (27 per 100,000 in Southampton, 18 per 100,000 in Hampshire).

In the case of liver disease, people in Southampton are almost twice as likely to die before the age of 75 (17 per 100,000) than in Hampshire (9).

Overall, Hampshire County Council is ranked the 10 th best of England's 150 local authorities, while Southampton languishes in 95 th place. The Isle of Wight is ranked 49 th.

The Health Secretary said greater poverty was no excuse for high early death rates - pointing to Rotherham in South Yorkshire as an example of a poorer area that was successful saving lives.

But Dr Steve Townsend, chairman of NHS Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group disagrees, pointing to deprivation as the “biggest factor” for Southampton's low ranking.

He said: “Southampton City Council is ranked 81st out of 326 English local authorities ranked by the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and that is consistent with these figures.

“We recognise that improvements require more than just treating disease effectively, and are working with Southampton City Council through our local health and wellbeing board to tackle the wider determinants of health such as unemployment, housing and smoking.”

A city council public health spokesman said: “Highly populated urban areas have a range of affluent and much poorer areas and it is a fact that people in poorer health generally speaking have less wealth.

“We have run a number of successful health services in the city, particularly in the more deprived parts of the city, to help tackle different diseases and health conditions which can impact on life expectancy. Some of the services focus on raising awareness of the symptoms of heart disease, stroke, obesity, lung disease and different types of cancer, and encouraging people who experience them to seek help as early as possible to improve their chances of successful treatment and potential cure.

“We plan to build on this success by sustaining public health programmes in the city, which will help more people to live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives.”

Councillor Liz Fairhurst, from Hampshire County Council, welcomed the table as a way of highlighting inconsistencies across the county and hopes best practices will be shared Hampshire-wide to boost the ranking, especially for lung disease.

The statistics are published just weeks after local councils were given responsibility for public health, following the demise of primary care trusts (PCTs).

Mr Hunt has set an ambitious target to save 30,000 lives a year by 2020, by cutting death rates from the four major killers.

  • Additional reporting by Rob Merrick