Creating a North East Population Health Alliance
The Case for Change illustrates the reasons we cannot do more of the same. There is good evidence that investment in prevention is cost-effective, and the impact is most apparent when changes are implemented at scale. It can take time for benefits to be fully realised, and in the meantime, demand on health and care services continues to grow to meet people’s immediate needs, many of which are preventable. Breaking this cycle is fundamental to improving population health while reducing inequalities in health
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. However, compounded by the pandemic, some of the population health challenges we are grappling with are significant and in places worsening.
There is no single blueprint for a local population health approach. Learning and adapting from our experiences and that of others, leaders in the Northeast of Scotland, with support of the Director of Public Health, are looking at how we can create a system of learning across and within our partnership arrangements to reverse current trends. We are calling this the North East Alliance in recognition of our collective responsibility and to avoid the perception that this is only the responsibility of public health professionals.
North East Population Health Alliance is a forum where we explore our challenges together, tests solutions, and ensure that ‘what works’ is implemented at scale and at pace. The Alliance is modelling enhanced joint working across the public sector. Based on our vision ‘to have flourishing communities, living fulfilled lives’ we are building a shared picture of need, creating opportunities to learn together, redesigning pathways and finding new ways forward to ensure better outcomes for the populations that we serve.
The Alliance has had a series of workshops to develop our thinking. Improving everyone’s opportunity to live long, healthy, fulfilling lives needs drive from us all. We will use the four pillars approach (Figure 1), with support from the Kings Fund, to guide our conversation with our citizens, communities, and partners to take collective action to turn the tide on widening health inequalities.
Figure 1: King's Fund Model of Population Health
Additional Reading
