CARE bosses say they are excited about a new "online dashboard" which could help them tackle health inequalities.

The new software, is based around a "health outcomes framework", which has been developed by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care partnership.

It focuses on areas that "adversely impact upon the health and wellbeing of the Greater Manchester population", such as smoking prevalence and alcohol use.

The framework and system will be rolled out across the health system and to local authorities later this year after further development. A second phase of development being due for completion in September.

Public health consultant Jon Hobday gave a presentation on its potential to identify problem areas to members of Bury Council's health and wellbeing board.

He told members that the software, and the framework it is based on, looks at "a whole raft of different outcome measures , how we get on against other areas in Greater Manchester and how we get on against our statistical neighbours."

The data allows health bosses to see which health-related issues — such as smoking and alcohol use, need to be addressed — and also where the current approach is yielding results.

Mr Hobday said: “The idea is that it allows us to bring in measures targeted across Greater Manchester that we think will most contribute to population health outcomes and can compare and contrast to see if we are getting better or worse. It allows us to look and see if we are where we should be.”

Work undertaken by the partnership around smoking has in Greater Manchester has already led to chiefs looking again at how they approach the problem.

Mr Hobday added: "It helps to focus our attention. In some areas we are performing very well and can continue as we are but there are other areas where we need to focus. That really is the key to it all."

Cllr Andrea Simpson, Bury Council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said she was was "excited" by the potential of the dashboard.

And she quizzed Mr Hobday on whether it would be possible to “drill down” into the date to ward level, as some areas of the borough may face different challenges to others.

Mr Hobday said that while the system would not provide information that geographically precise, it would act as “a catalyst” – for example if smoking rates were found to be high in a particular ward or area.

He added: “Then we can put proportionate resources into where it’s needed to reduce inequality and improve over all health outcomes.”

Dr Jeff Shryer, chair of Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was also excited by the "overview" provided by the dashboard, and said it had alerted him to the fact Bury was an outlier in terms of alcohol-based admissions.

He said: "It could be really powerful brining together the wider determinants of health , not only mortality figures or respiratory figures, but the effects of unemployment.

"In terms of the impact of employment on health I would absolutely want to go to Trafford and Stockport and find out what they are doing. Or I would like to see who is doing really well with alcohol related problems. I think it's a great tool."