The Cheshire and Merseyside Directors of Public Health currently meet fortnightly. The key messages from the 22nd July 2022 meeting are as follows:
1. Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Update
The latest updates from this wide-ranging Programme include work on systems leadership within the subregion to ensure alignment across a number of organisations and projects, updates on schemes including BP@Home and Wellpoint Kiosks, plans for the national Know Your Numbers! week and much more.
2. Population Health Update
Following the publication of All Together Fairer, the subregion’s health inequalities from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, extensive work has been undertaken to ensure that the system has the knowledge and ability to carry out the recommendations within the report. Ian Ashworth, Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Population Health Board, has been connecting regularly with the Integrated Care System leadership team to ensure there is alignment and energy to see this work through. Priority areas have been identified and work is also being undertaken to ensure that Marmot Indicators are embedded into the subregion’s CIPHA platform.
3. UKHSA Update
- Evidence suggests that the most recent increase in COVID-19 infections may have hit its peak, however some trusts are still seeing increased admissions.
- Monkeypox outbreaks are slowly increasing, especially in London, and work is now underway to ensure that the subregion has a robust vaccination pathway for those in the identified cohorts.
4. Collaborative Strategic Delivery Plan
This year’s Strategic Delivery Plan sets out the Programmes of work that will be led by or supported by the Champs Support Team with objectives, outputs and outcomes.
5. Good News and Gratitude
- Dr Matt Tyrer represented the Collaborative at the LGC Awards on the 20th July. The Collaborative was shortlisted in the Public / Public Partnership category and whilst it didn’t take the top prize, to be shortlisted at such a prestigious awards ceremony and highlighted on a national stage is a huge achievement for the local public health system.
- A recent national review of the DHSC self-isolation pilots, which includes the subregion’s successful Integrated Contact Tracing Pilot, by the UKHSA Academic Board was positive and highlighted the strong partnerships existing in Cheshire and Merseyside, facilitated by the Collaborative and Directors of Public Health. The Board is chaired by Susan Hopkins and Tom Fowler, who also recognised the legacy benefits that the evaluation highlighted.
- The recent meeting of the NO MORE Suicide Prevention Board was highlighted for the positivity and commitment of board members and officers working within the Programme.
- The excellent resilience planning from local organisations including police, fire etc. was recognised following a period of extreme heat at the start of the week, which saw the country’s hottest recorded temperature ever.
- The Queen’s Baton Relay, part of the Commonwealth Games, hit Northwich this week as part of its journey across the country. As part of the celebration, sport and leisure activities such as football, netball, boxing and more were organised by Cheshire West and Chester Council and Active Cheshire.
