Health and Wellbeing
Cambridgeshire Horizons recognised the importance of health and wellbeing in Cambridgeshire.
Providing people with a choice of where to live, good transport links, green spaces, cultural facilities and a safe environment are very important.
New website for JSNA
Cambridgeshire County Council and NHS Cambridgeshire have launched a new website which will help establish support and service needs across the different communities in the county. The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) will help the council, health providers and relevant partner agencies to prioritise services for the most vulnerable and those that are most in need of support. To find out more visit www.cambridgeshirejsna.org.uk.
Success for CAMQUIT!
Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and CAMQUIT ( the Cambridgeshire Stop Smoking Service) have won a host of national awards at the annual 'No Smoking Day' awards ceremony in London in December 2010.
The successful 'No Smoking Day' programme of activities at Fulbourn Hospital on March 10 was honoured by receiving six awards, including: Runner-up in the categories of 'Best Use of the 2010 'Break Free' Theme' and 'Best Activity on a Small Budget'; Highly Commended in the categories of 'Best Use of a Health Setting'; ' Most Unusual/Innovative Event', 'Best Photo' and 'Best Education Setting'.
The team won the awards for their innovative interpretation of the day's theme 'Break Free' building activities around the care and use of our hands; including clay modelling and various physical exercises. The team are currently planning for next year's ' No Smoking Day' on the 9th of March 2011 when the theme will be 'Time to Quit'.
CAMQUIT provide support in a variety of settings, including your General Practice and local Pharmacy, your workplace and even over the phone on a telephone counselling call back service. You can expect, free weekly one to one support, stop smoking medicines to help you manage the cravings, free Carbon Monoxide checks so you can see your body healing and a stop smoking plan tailored to suit you. For further information on the variety of our services please call the CAMQUIT line on 0800 018 4304 or visit their website.
Healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health in England launched
On Tuesday 30th November 2010 the Government published the Healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health in England. The strategy sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of public health in England.
As part of the strategy, the government will create a new organisation, Public Health England, which will be an overarching service running mainly at local government level, covering all aspects of public health monitoring, promotion and intervention.
The aim of the service is to encourage and help people maintain their health, mainly at a community level through local councils, whilst keeping a firm national grip on crucial population-wide issues such as flu pandemics at a national level.
For the first time in a generation, central Government will not hold all the purse strings. The majority of public health services will be commissioned by local authorities from their ring-fenced budget, or by the NHS, all funded from Public Health England's new public health budget.
A key aim of the strategy is that responsibility is shared across society: individuals, families, communities, local government, business, the NHS, voluntary and community organisations, the wider public and central government.
NHS White Paper
The NHS White Paper, Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of the NHS.
The White Paper proposes that a consortium of GP practices, working with other health and care professionals and in partnership with local communities and local authorities, will commission the great majority of NHS services for their patients.
Local authorities will be responsible for:
- Promoting integration and partnership between the NHS, social care, public health and other local services and strategies;
- Leading joint strategic needs assessments, and promoting collaboration on local commissioning plans,
- Building partnership for service changes and priorities.
As well as elected members of the local authority, all relevant NHS commissioners will be involved in carrying out the above functions, as will the Directors of Public Health, adult social services, and children's services. They will all be under duties of partnership.