A report focusing on how economic problems affect the health of a County Durham community has been described as a call for action.

The report, called Miserable Measures, was commissioned jointly by the County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority and Easington Primary Care Trust.

While the findings indicate that deprivation is not uniform across the county, it concludes that "poor health in Easington is extreme in the national as well as the regional context".

The report has been described by Easington's MP John Cummings as a clarion call for action to tackle health inequality in his constituency.

The findings reveal that in terms of health alone, all of the 26 local government wards in the Easington district are in the worst ten per cent of areas across the country.

Mr Cummings said ten out of the 26 wards are within the worst 20 of the 8,414 wards in England.

He said: "Whilst we should all be concerned with ensuring residents of the district have access to high quality care, we should be equally concerned about the underlying causes of ill health and deprivation.''

Mr Cummings, who has held a series of meetings with chief executives and chairmen of the County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trust over the summer, also pointed out that a number of the worst affected wards are in Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency.

He said: "My top priority is to press the Government to review its resource allocation to police and to secure additional health resources for the Easington Primary Care Trust."

Mr Cummings is also seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State for Health, Dr John Reid.

A number of initiatives have already been put in place by Easington District Council together with Easington PCT to alleviate problems arising from deprivation.

The director of regeneration and development at Easington District Council, Janet Johnson, said: "We will continue to work with the PCT, both to challenge this situation and to develop collaborative and innovative ways of working to improve the health and quality of life of our residents.'