The Cheshire and Merseyside (C&M) Directors of Public Health (DsPH) currently meet weekly. The key messages from the 8th October meeting, with a focus on Population Health, are as follows:
- C&M population health overview – The DsPH reviewed the governance, strategic groups and work programmes of the Health & Care Partnership (HCP) as it evolves into a formal Integrated Care System (ICS). They discussed how public health is featured within the new ICS and which priorities are aligned. Ian Ashworth, Director of Public Health (DPH) Cheshire West and Chester, is DPH lead and sits on the HCP Transformation Board chaired by Sarah O’Brien.
- Marmot Community update – The DsPH received an update from Jo McCullagh on the work so far by the Marmot team, who have produced an interim C&M report and a set of indicators. Workshops are being organised with designated leads at each Place to explore the work on health inequalities that is already happening and identify further opportunities going forward. DsPH thanked Jo and everyone involved in the work and will provide their feedback on the interim report.
- Population health dashboard and System P update – Sharon McAteer shared details of the population health dashboard which is now live with topic based indicators. System P will be looking at population segments rather than disease areas and DsPH will be feeding priorities in for review by the System P reference group.
- UKHSA COVID-19 update – There are concerns in some areas of Cheshire with the rates being higher than the January peak. The highest rates of Covid are in school age children. Rates in women aged 40-49 years are also high. There are outbreaks being seen especially in Special Educational Needs schools.
- Good news and gratitude – The CIPHA system won the “Best use of Data” at the HTN awards. Well done to everyone involved.
