|
|
|
|
Hewitt: align council and NHS budgets to help ICSs unlock potential
Council and NHS budgets should be aligned to improve integrated care systems capacity for long-term planning, a government commissioned review has recommended.
The Hewitt review, conducted by Tony Blair’s former health secretary and current Chair of the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, Patricia Hewitt, looked at the role of integrated care systems and has made a raft of suggestions including the creation of a peer review system following the same model as the one used by the Local Government Association.
Announcing NHS and council budgets at the same time would enable ICSs to plan better, the review said. This year the public health grant was not announced until 14 March to the frustration of many public health directors. This the third latest it has been announced in recent years.
Focusing on the importance of preventative care, the review said: “It has also long been recognised that the NHS is, in practice, more of a National Illness Service than a National Health Service.”
It added: “Prevention, population health management and tackling health inequalities are not a distraction from the immediate priorities: indeed, they are the key to sustainable solutions to those immediate performance challenges.”
Source: LGC, 4 April 2023
|
|
Opinion: The Guardian view on obesity: prevention is as important as cure
The Guardian outlines why addressing the causes of obesity is just as important as funding for obesity treatments.
The article states that “most policies from the government’s 2020 obesity strategy have been delayed or shelved, while public health spending has been cynically stripped back, culminating in the scrapping of Public Health England in 2020. Details of this year’s public health grant were announced at the last minute, giving councils little time to plan services. Since 2015, the grant has been cut by 26% per person.”
The article argues these actions are “self-defeating” and highlights the cost-effectiveness of investing in prevention. The authors also highlight the correlation between obesity and poverty, arguing that “subsidising fresh food would be a step forward, but poverty isn’t just about money; it’s also about time”.
The article concludes, “So long as these problems persist, obesity won’t be prevented – it will just be medicated”.
Source: The Guardian, 4 April 2023
|
|
Nottingham enforcement officer hired to stamp out sales of illegal tobacco and vapes
An enforcement officer is being employed in Nottingham to help stamp out sales of illegal and counterfeit tobacco and e-cigarettes. Nottingham City Council will be spending up to £116,355 on the tobacco control enforcement officer over a period of three years, alongside a further £120,000 for a part-time Nottinghamshire Police officer to help execute warrants and target problematic groups or individuals.
It comes as Nottingham is expected to miss the mark of being smoke-free by 2030 by 10 years, after the Government set a target in 2019 stating less than 5% of the population should be smoking by 2030. The Government, too, is on track to miss its own targets by nine years and, in some of the most disadvantaged areas, it could be double this.
The council said more effective regulation of illegal tobacco products and under age sales of e-cigarettes “will contribute greatly towards achieving our vision of having a smoke-free generation by 2040. […] Smoking is one of the largest causes of ill-health and early death in Nottingham city.”
Source: Nottinghamshire Live, 4 April 2023
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk
ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
