PEOPLE from Ipswich are more likely to die from heart disease than the vast majority of those living elsewhere in the east of England, figures revealed today.

Of the 47 local authorities in the region, the town ranks as the fifth worst for coronary deaths.

Every year in Ipswich there are 84 deaths per every 100,000 people – more than Norwich (82), Colchester (67), Cambridge (56) and Great Yamouth (75).

Elsewhere in Suffolk, there are 69 deaths per 100,000 people in Babergh, and 70 deaths in both Mid Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal.

Nationally, Tameside (132 deaths) in Greater Manchester is the UK’s “heart disease capital”, according to statistics compiled by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The risk to the population of Ipswich is more than double that faced by those living in upmarket Kensington and Chelsea in London, which recorded the lowest number of deaths (39) per 100,000 people.

The figures represent average death rates for the three years from 2009 to 2011.

Professor Peter Weissberg, the BHF’s medical director, said: “These latest figures expose staggering inequalities in deaths from heart disease across the UK. But it’s unacceptable that people continue to die from heart attacks, regardless of their postcode.

“Coronary heart disease is not beaten yet – it remains the single biggest killer in the UK.

“We urgently need the nation to unite behind our quest to fund research to eradicate this deadly disease wherever it strikes.”

Last year, a Star investigation found residents in the most deprived wards of Ipswich were at significantly higher risk of heart disease than those living in more affluent parts of Suffolk.

In one grim snapshot of the health inequalities between the county’s rich and poor, the heart disease death rate of those living in Ipswich’s Bridge ward was found to be nearly 200 per cent higher than residents just four miles down the road in west Kesgrave.