Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Public Health, Communities and Prosperity presenting the Public Health Annual Report 2022-23.

The covering report with a summary is attached and the full report is available at - https://www.devonhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/aphr/2022-23/

RESOLVED that the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2022-23, which focuses on the importance of prevention to improve the health and wellbeing of Devon residents, be received and the recommendations contained therein be noted.

(Councillors Whitton and Wrigley attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Director of Public Health, Communities and Prosperity presenting the Public Health Annual Report 2022-23. The full report was available at

https://www.devonhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/aphr/2022-23/

The Director of Public Health had a statutory duty to write an annual report, and the Local Authority a statutory duty to publish it (section 73B [5] & [6] of the 2006 NHS Act, inserted by section 31 of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act). This enabled the Director of Public Health to make an independent judgement about the state of the health of the local population.

The pandemic had resulted in a significant rise in demand for health and care services and excess mortality.  The demand had been driven by a combination of lifestyle factors, people delaying seeking medical help and disruption to the health and care system. It was further known that demand for health and care services was linked to the conditions in which we were born into, grow, live, work and age, known as the wider determinants of health. This year’s annual report focused on prevention and why now more than ever, it was vital to invest in prevention. 

The Report highlighted the key drivers of poor health, morbidity, and premature mortality in Devon and defined what prevention meant in the context of improving healthy life expectancy and life expectancy and tackling the increasing health inequalities. 

There four key elements to preventative action consisted of:

          1.  Wider determinants

          2.  Primary Prevention

          3.  Secondary Prevention

          4.  Tertiary Prevention.

The Report provided a detailed chapter on each of the above elements providing examples of preventative programmes and initiatives which had been proved to improve health outcomes, impact service demand and were cost effective.

It further included an update on the recommendations from the 2021-22 annual report and outlined a further 11 recommendations for 2022/2023, a summary of which is below.

1.       Devon Integrated Care Partnership to work together to realise the potential as anchor institutions to improve the lives of local people and reduce health inequalities, drawing on evidence of the impact of this approach from other area.

2.       Devon Health and Wellbeing Board to consider the impact of the climate emergency on health and equity, through a joint strategic needs assessment.

3.       Public Health Devon to actively work with system partners to support the delivery of the agreed Joint Forward Plan actions and objectives.   

4.       Public Health Devon to actively participate in the Marmot Region work programme and ensure learning was shared with Integrated Care Partnership. 

5.       The Devon Food Partnership / Energy Saving Devon partnership utilise every opportunity to address health, equity and the climate emergency.

6.       Public Health Devon and Devon Integrated Care Partnership to work collaboratively with communities within multi-agency alliances, to develop and refine multi-level programmes of action on the leading modifiable risk behaviours.

7.       Public Health Devon to work with stakeholders in Devon Integrated Care Partnership to develop  ...  view the full minutes text for item 370