To receive Report No. 31/2018 from the Director of Public Health for Leicestershire and Rutland

Report No. 31/2018 from the Director of Public Health was received.

The Director of Public Health, Mr Sandys, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Rutland by reporting publicly and independently on trends and gaps in the health and wellbeing of the population and by making recommendations for improvements to a wide range of organisations.  The focus of this year’s report was an analysis of health in Rutland covering demography, wider determinants of health, lifestyles, ill health, hospital admissions and prescribing.

During discussion the following points were noted:

a)    Members would have welcomed more analysis of the data.

b)    That a lot of the data was based on the 2011 Census and therefore needed to note changes that had taken place since then, such as the Oakham North West development.

c)    That Military Health could be expanded to include specific analysis on non-serving spouses, children and veterans; by age range.

d)    That mental health was as important, if not more prevalent with military veterans, as with those who were serving military.  Members were advised that the National Health Service was part of the Military Covenant to ensure that military personnel were not disadvantaged.  

e)    That the report did not contain any analysis on the prescribing of anti-depressants and that there was very little reference to mental health.  The Director of Public Health advised the Panel that this was a joint area of work and would be followed up.

f)     That the level of recorded diabetes could indicate that GPs were better at diagnosing than national comparators.

g)    That Members requested age ranges be included within the data, for example, prescription data and diabetes data.

h)   That Health was referenced in all policies concerned with deprivation.

i)     That a holistic approach would allow for the relationship between various sets of data to be explored; enabling preventative work and the promotion of good health.

j)      Public Health was looking at the possibility of working in partnership with North West Anglian Trust, due to the number of Rutland residents using the services provided by the Trust.

k)    The Director of Public Health undertook to ensure that the transport planning team was aware of the information regarding air pollution.  It was noted that some human-made particulate air pollution (PM2.5) was due to agricultural dust.

l)     The low level of the emissions and the working being undertaken by Hanson Cement in Ketton, and the regular liaison meetings with the local community.

m)  It was requested that Public Health be used to inform possible future development of the St George’s Barracks.

n)   The integrated locality team (one team for Rutland) was a multi-disciplinary health and social care team concerned with the vulnerable cohort in Rutland, offering preventative support.  It was a strategy developed through the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership based on methodologies, most effective planning area 40-50k population units.

o)    The Panel requested the recommendations within the report be changed to:

Military Health including more detail and consideration of military families;

Mental Health referencing the prescribing of anti-depressants;

Poverty;

North West Anglian Trust; and to remove

Lifestyles; and

Crime.

The Director of Public Health to circulate the alterations to the Panel for their endorsement.

AGREED:

That the Panel NOTED the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report.

That the Panel REQUESTED alterations to the recommendations in the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report, as above, to be circulated for endorsement.