HEALTH bosses have welcomed new data that suggests Bury residents are the healthiest in the North West.

The statistics show that the borough's residents have fewer essential operations in hospital than anywhere else in the region, outperforming 30 other areas.

Across the country, Bury is ranked 40th out of 211 for the fewest non-elective operations.

The figures were for the 12 months up until the end of April, though it does not state the number of non-elective operations that Bury residents underwent.

Unlike other health data, it is measured against residents of each area, rather than against the hospital in which the surgery was performed.

The rankings area also weighted to take into account the profile of residents in each area, such as the number of older or disabled residents.

NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) chief officer, Stuart North, said: "This is an indication that Bury residents are relatively healthy and do not need to undergo urgent or emergency treatment compared with other areas in the North West and across the country.

"This is good news as it shows that we are providing the right sort of out-of-hospital health and social care, therefore minimising the need for patients to become emergency admissions to hospital.

“However, it is our ambition in our locality plan to improve even further.”

In recent years, the CCG has encouraged Bury residents to lead healthy lifestyles by, for example, taking part in the I Will if You Will campaign to get more women and girls into sport and fitness.

Medical chiefs have also campaigned for food takeaways to serve less salt to customers and a wide range of preventative treatment, such as quit-smoking sessions, is provided at local hospitals and at GP surgeries.

The figures were backed by Bury Council leader, Cllr Rishi Shori who is a member of Bury Health and Wellbeing Board.

Cllr Shori said: "The figures are encouraging and show that messages around leading healthy lifestyles are clearly having an impact.

"However, this is just one set of data and we cannot become complacent when analysing such an important issue and it is essential that these positive efforts continue."