Annex G
MEMORANDUM BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PUBLIC
HEALTH (PH1) (contd.)
The Chief Medical Officer's Communications
The Chief Medical Officer has a variety of mechanisms
for communicating public health information which include:
— CMO's Public Health Link.
The mechanism used varies with the level of
urgency required to deliver the information. Each mechanism is
described briefly below.
CMO'S UPDATE
This is a quarterly bulletin that was introduced
in 1994 and is used to communicate non-urgent information to all
doctors in England when the alternative would have been a series
of CMO Letters each on a specific topic. The distribution list
also includes senior health managers and a wide variety of health
professionals amongst the nursing and pharmaceutical professions.
CMO's Update contains articles on: those
which would have previously warranted a professional letter from
the Chief Medical Officer to doctors and are not time critical;
topical issues of interest to doctors and issues of an important
public health nature.
CMO LETTERS
CMO Letters are always on specific topics and
are therefore targeted mailings. They are sent to health professionals
for those issues which are either urgent or when the timing is
crucial and cannot wait for the next edition of Update.
On average there are three to five letters a year.
PUBLIC HEALTH
LINK SYSTEM
This is an electronic urgent communication system
to health professionals that is initiated in CMO's office and
sent to health authorities for onward cascade to nominated professionals,
which may include general practitioners, practice nurses, community
services pharmacists, medical directors in NHS Trusts etc. The
system comprises a pager alert mechanism so that health authorities
are aware when a message has been sent. Messages are classified
as either for cascade within six (immediate) or 24 hours
(urgent).
Urgent and immediate communications from the
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on public health are transmitted on
average 15 times a year and are most likely to be connected with
issues about drugs, infections, vaccines or other public health
matters.
CMO'S WEBSITE
CMO's website is an integral component of the
Department of Health's website and contains CMO letters, CMO Update
and Public Health Link messages as well as various reports and
documents in which the Chief Medical Officer has made a particular
contribution. The CMO's website is also mirrored on the NHSweb.
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