MEMORANDUM BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PUBLIC
HEALTH (PH1) (contd.)
8. THE ROLE
OF THE
MINISTER FOR
PUBLIC HEALTH
8.1 This Government appointed the first
ever Minister for Public Health in May 1997. The Minister has
the role of co-ordinating public health policies across Government
and ensuring public health is at the forefront of Government initiatives,
as well as responsibility for the whole spectrum of policies in
specific areas such as cancer and coronary heart disease. This
decision to combine two of the Government's biggest priorities
with the public health portfolio (combined with appointment of
national directors for these and mental health, with responsibilities
encompassing prevention, screening and treatment) shows just how
highly ministers value public health. This is also in line with
the definition of public health quoted in 1988 in the report of
then Chief Medical Officer, Sir Donald Acheson: ". . . efforts
to preserve health by minimising and where possible removing injurious
environmental, social and behavioural influences, but also the
provision of effective and efficient services to restore the sick
to health . . .".
8.2 Key to the role of the Minister's post
is the promotion of health improvement for all and the reduction
of health inequalities, as set out in the Saving Lives White
Paper. This includes tackling injurious economic, social
and environmental influences affecting health and developing policies
to ensure efficient, safe and effective treatment services for
those who become sick.
8.3 The Minister chairs the cross-departmental
Ministerial Task Force on Teenage Pregnancy, responsible for keeping
Whitehall focussed on implementing the Government's teenage pregnancy
strategy, and is directly accountable to the Prime Minister for
this work. In addition, the Minister chairs the Sure Start
(see 4.4) Ministerial group and is convening a cross-government
working group to look at the findings of the National Diet and
Nutrition Survey (4-18 year olds), and the policy implications
and needs for different Government departments.
8.4 Public health is the province and concern
of all those who are interested in improving the health of the
population. Clearly, therefore, the values and priorities of public
health should permeate the whole of the work of the Government
in general, and the NHS in particular. The key change for the
NHS is to make inequalities and public health issues part of the
mainstream of the Service. Given that the use of NHS resources-staff,
money, estate and activity-are dominated by treatment of established
disease, substantial change in attitudes and way of working will
be required including better collaboration across the NHS, and
with other agencies.
8.5 Furthermore, far from being a problem
for public health a modernised NHS is part of the solution. NHS-Direct,
walk-in centres and healthy living centres all offer a great opportunity
to provide health information for families who lack easy access
to GPs or health services. However, for decades public health
has had the right priorities, but lacked the clear delivery systems
as well as the political backing to put those plans into practice.
The Minister for Public Health gives leadership and strategic
management to driving forward and pulling together the wide range
of initiatives that will together deliver improved health outcomes
and reduce health inequalities.
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