PUBLIC Health Minister Melanie Johnson insisted yesterday that many people have still not got the message about healthy living.

Speaking exclusively to The Northern Echo before opening a health summit in Durham, Miss Johnson denied that a public consultation launched this week on improving the nation's health was unnecessary.

Some commentators have suggested that everyone already knows the facts about a healthy lifestyle and that the real problem is that many choose to ignore them.

But the minister insisted that the healthy message pumped out over the past few decades had simply passed some people by.

"We do know that it would be good to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, to avoid being overweight and to take 30 minutes of exercise everyday but, to be fair, not everybody knows that. There is a question of finding the best way to provide the information that people need," said Miss Johnson.

Although she acknowledged the problems faced by the region, which has one of the poorest health profiles in England, she praised the progress that had been made.

During her speech to 150 health professionals, local authority officials and representatives of voluntary organisations meeting to discuss the health of young people in the region, Miss Johnson said the ultimate objective of the Government was "equity of health" in every part of the UK.

Professor Alan Craft, head of child health at Newcastle University, acknowledged the challenges in the region but highlighted areas in which the North-East leads the way.

Services for newborn babies in the region were so good that they are "being seen as a model for the rest of the country", he said.

Prof Craft also praised the work of the Child Injury Prevention unit, in Newcastle, which he said had helped keep North-East accident rates below the national average.

Miss Johnson also visited healthy living projects at Wheatley Hill, County Durham, and in Middlesbrough.