Creating a North East Population Health Alliance
Everyone in our North East community has the right to good health. Accessing health services is part of this but there are many wider factors that support us to have good health and wellbeing. In recent years health gains have been stalling with the amount of time and life years spent in good health decreasing for many of us. Health inequalities are persistent. Financial constraints are affecting NHS Grampian and our partners but evidence shows that investing in prevention and early intervention represents good value for money. The impact of this is most apparent when changes are implemented at scale. But it takes time for these benefits to be fully realised. In the meantime demands on health and social care services continue to grow to meet people’s immediate needs, many which are preventable. Breaking this cycle is central to improving population health and reducing health inequalities.
Our health and wellbeing is shaped by a whole range of factors including, education, living and working conditions that are quite separate from health services. NHS Grampian cannot address this complex agenda on our own, no single agency can. We are fortunate to have strong partnerships with public agencies, private and third sectors and communities in the North East with many examples of good practice and innovation.
NHS Grampian is working with our local public sector partners within the North East Population Health Alliance (Local Authorities [Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray], Scottish Fire and Rescue, Police Scotland and Public Health Scotland) to focus our collective action ‘upstream’ to reduce demand on services and support people to live healthy and fulfilling lives. By creating this population health system, we are taking action to prevent harm, improve health and support communities to thrive now and into the future.
In this North East Population Health Alliance North East leaders are considering shared challenges and developing their strategic position to inform a co-ordinated local response.
The North East Population Health Alliance has adopted the King’s Fund four pillars to guide conversations and collective action to turn the tide on widening health inequalities.
In the past 18 months the Alliance has focussed on stigma associated with substance use, place and wellbeing- strengthening social prescribing, evidenced based action to mitigate against the high cost of living, development of the wider public health workforce, data sharing through the creation of a North East Atlas of Inequalities and adopting a whole system approach to healthy weight and active living.
