Report praises County's work to improve our health

A report by a national support team has praised the work being done in Worcestershire to achieve better health outcomes for all our residents.

The Health Inequalities National Support Team (HINST) spent a week in the county last November to find out about the progress NHS Worcestershire and key partners have made with the challenge of reducing health inequalities across the county. 

Worcestershire is on target to meet the national Public Service Agreement targets, but partners were keen to benefit from the insights a visit by the NST would provide.

The HINST gave an extremely positive assessment of the County, recognising four key areas of strength: 

• above average health outcomes;
• strengthened partnership arrangements;
• strong public health leadership;
• a wide range of interventions to address lifestyle issues. 

Particular credit was given to the strong visionary leadership for health improvement led by the Joint Director of Public Health, and strengthening political leadership through the appointment of a Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Health Improvement together with investment in developing the community leadership for health role of elected members.

Prof Chris Bentley, Head of the National Support Team for Health Inequalities, said: "We learnt a great deal from our visit. There is much excellent practice which we'll be sharing with others, and huge potential in Worcestershire for further development of the Health Inequalities agenda. We hope our recommendations will prove useful in helping the partners achieve this."

Dr Richard Harling, Director of Public Health said: "The visit was extremely worthwhile and supportive in helping us to review progress and priorities. We will now take on board the key learning from the visit and feed this directly into our future health inequalities strategy.  It's a priority for us to narrow the differences between the highest and lowest life expectancies in the County. "

Cllr John Smith, Worcestershire County Council's Cabinet Member for Health Improvement, added: "We're really encouraged by the feedback we received and that the HINST are keen to share what we're doing with others. It's a great springboard for us to go on and achieve more to make a real difference to people's health and wellbeing."

The County Council's Cabinet received the report this week (8 March) and approved the recommendations. It will now go to the Worcestershire Partnership for approval and action.