INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE
Dr Alison Hill, managing director of Solutions for Public Health, speaks to NHE about a new report into the delivery of public health services at a time of economic and structural upheaval in the NHS.
W
idening health inequalities between and within communities at a time
when the NHS is having to make unprec- edented efficiency savings and having its whole structure reformed mean that new methods are required to deliver sustainable health services.
‘Co-production for health: a new model for a radically new world’, is a report based on the findings from a national summit in November 2011, and published by the NHS Alliance, NHS Solutions for Public Health, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Association of Directors of Pub- lic Health, and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.
It suggests that local authorities should commission public health services on a lo- cal scale, maintain successful aspects of the current system and decommission those that are proved inefficient.
The report calls for local authorities and health providers to join together with local communities to deliver necessary and ef- fective healthcare services to the public. As levels of preventable health problems such as obesity continue to rise, costing the NHS in resources and loss of productivity, and threatening health and life expectancy, the aims of the scheme outlined in the report are to educate communities and thereby help persuade them to make healthy life- style choices.
The report states that “actions must be uni- versal but with an intensity and scale that is proportionate to the level of disadvantage”.
Defining inequality
Dr Alison Hill, managing director of SPH, explained to NHE who the target ‘disad- vantaged’ sub-groups included, saying: “Often ‘disadvantaged’ is about income deprivation, sometimes it’s about material deprivation, and then there are vulnerable groups which need to be targeted – peo- ple with particular learning disabilities, or mental health problems, or physical dis- abilities, or certain ethnic minorities where there is a poor health experience.”
32 | national health executive Jan/Feb 12
Dr Hill explained that these ‘local’ commu- nities would be relatively specific groups of people below local authority level. She said: “There’s considerable variations of deprivation within a local area. You want to target services where there is greatest need, which tends to be those populations in the more deprived areas.”
The report highlights the need for local communities to be involved in the develop-
ment and delivery of their own healthcare services.
Methodology
Dr Hill said the findings arose from a number of sources: “You look at the data to see how it compares for that population against other populations. You also consult with the public about what they think are the gaps in the services and what would
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