Agenda item

Report of Director of Public Health.

Alison Challenger, Public Health Consultant to present.

 Allison Challenger, Consultant in Public Health, presented the ‘Directory of Public Health Commissioning Services’ document which provides detailed information on the wide range of services provided by Public Health and the statistical health information relating to the population of the Bulwell and Bulwell Forest Wards.

The following points were highlighted during the meeting:

(a)  since April 2014, Public Health has been the responsibility of the City Council;

(b)  the document, which has been compiled with input from NHS and other partners, enables a ‘population approach’ by highlighting health issues within specific areas;

(c)  the analysis of the population’s health enables specific issues and risks to be targeted and ensures that the best possible value and benefit can be provided;

(d)  it is widely acknowledged that the level of deprivation impacts on the health and life expectancy of a population and that Area 1 has high levels of deprivation;

(e)  the key points from the analysis are as follows:

(i)  smoking prevalence is high with 28% of the adult population in Area 1 smoking (nationally 20%) but within Bulwell, 36% of adults smoke;

(ii)  obesity is high which impacts on other illnesses;

(iii)  life expectancy within the area is lower than the national and city average with people in Bulwell Ward expected to live 5 years less than those in Bulwell Forest, where life expectancy is in line with the national average;

(f)  now that this comprehensive information is available, the next step is to identify the behavioural and health attitudes of local people and, on some issues, the City wide population and seek to change people’s behaviours to address and prevent poor health patterns;

(g)  some diseases can be linked to known issues, such as diabetes which is often linked to obesity, it is likely that a proportion of sufferers have not yet been identified/diagnosed. Work will be planned to address this;

(h)  telephone counselling to improve health will be considered for the next round of health service commissioning;

(i)  it is acknowledged that Health and Social Care do need to better integrate to ensure that they can work together effectively for communities;

(j)  health needs to be considered at within all community focused services.

Alison asked that members of the Committee comment on whether they believed that the information provided was, with their knowledge of the local area and local people, is accurate, and how best Public Health could work towards changing the behaviours and attitudes which brought about poor health;

Comments from the Committee included:

(k)  another layer of data analysis is required to provide more accurate information as although one GP surgery may reports a high level onset diabetes’, it is possible that this is not peculiar to this area if there is a larger than average population of older people;

(l)  the root causes of poor health need to be identified and information provided is accessible and attractive format with advice and support available to ensure that people can make informed choices;

(m)  with an estimated 1 in 3 cigarettes believed to be counterfeit, there is an added danger that their contents are not regulated but also that the cost makes them easily affordable to all ages, including younger people;

(n)  some of today’s younger generations don’t know how to cook and rely on fast, convenience food which is cheap and easily available. It’s a concern that some children don’t know where vegetables come from;

(o)  on an individual level, more infant and child funerals are taking place than should be expected and have a devastating effect on families, especially in cases of violent death. Such trauma can then impact on the health of families, not just psychologically but also physically with increased smoking and drinking;

(p)  smoking during pregnancy is a significant issue within the area even though it has a known profound impact on the babies concern;

(q)  patients of Highbury Hospital have not been included within the area statistics as all information was gathered on home post codes;

(r)  mixed and changing messages from Central Government on what we should and shouldn’t eat are not helpful and lead to apathy;

(s)  Public Health need to ask communities what they want to help them promote and address health issues, not just tell them;

(t)  self help groups are very effective and ensure that people are responsible for themselves but with the encouragement of peer support.

In conclusion of the item, the Chair stated that Public Health and partners needed to work with communities to help them take local level responsibility for health.

 RESOLVED to note the report.