Morris: Securing public health targets is core NHS business
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
For far too long the NHS had heavily emphasised the acute sector, Chief Executive of the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority Candy Morris acknowledged in the plenary session on The role of public health in NHS and local government. But the current policy direction offered a real opportunity to make a difference both locally and nationally, she said.
‘Securing public health targets is core NHS business,' she reassured delegates, pointing to the 2007-08 operating frameworks as evidence of a renewed focus on prevention.
‘You've worked hard, often under great pressure and in a time of great uncertainty' she said. ‘But your results have been impressive and you should be proud. You've made the smoking ban happen – even two years ago this would have been unthinkable.'
But inequality gaps were still widening, she said. There were significant challenges around smoking, drugs, obesity and alcohol, so it was important to keep ‘relentlessly and ruthlessly focussed, and use first class information to guide you.'
The task was to inform and empower people to make healthy choices, and this would involve pooling information in an intelligent way from health, the police and Job Centre Plus, among others. ‘Some of this will be controversial, we know that,' she said.
But effective partnerships were very much in action already, proof of which could be seen in the fact that 76 per cent of Director of Public Health posts were joint appointments with local government. These partnerships gave public health a unique opportunity to influence the wider agenda. ‘Don't give up,' she urged – the key role of senior public health professionals was to provide leadership, ensure a strong workforce and robustly and intelligently use the evidence base.
‘You're working in a time of great potential excitement for health,' she said. There would be a continuing interest in improving health from the new Prime Minister, unprecedented access to local government and the population was more health aware than ever. ‘You can identify yourselves as a renewed and mainstream force for health.'