Public Health

Public Health Directorate

This section provides information on Public Health issues and functions. Much of the information will be of interest to staff and professional audiences working in the fields of Public Health and health improvement.

Turning the tide through prevention: Public Health strategy 2018-2028

What we do

Our Public Health Directorate aims to:

Influence policy and strategy including legal and fiscal measures to protect and promote health and reduce health inequalities.
Work with communities and partner organisations to improve health and reduce inequalities
Provide leadership for Public Health across NHSGGC and partner organisations
Ensure the protection of the public from communicable and non-communicable diseases and environmental hazards
Monitor the pattern of disease in the community
Assess the health needs of the population and advise how these needs can be met
Facilitate the strategic development of health care services provided
Ensure the systematic implementation of evidence based practice, clinical and quality standards for healthcare, preventative programmes and interventions such as screening; immunisation and behaviour change
Provide support for professional development – building capacity, research and evaluation services, access to evidence base and services to ensure dissemination of resources.

On 21st August 2018 NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board approved “Turning the tide through prevention“, our new ten year Public Health Strategy.

Find out more about our work and achievements in our 2015-2016 Out-turn report (pdf)

How we work

Our vision is to improve our population’s health and tackle health inequality.

We will build on our relationships with staff and residents across NHSGGC to adopt healthier lifestyles by working with, and supporting local communities, employers and staff. To deliver our vision, our mission is to focus on the changeable determinants of ill health and provide clarity and co-ordinate efforts to prevent health inequalities and to enable our staff and partners to deliver our vision.

Our Public Health Challenge

High numbers of children and families who continue to experience poor outcomes
Increasing number of individuals and families affected by poverty, debt, fuel and /or food poverty and homelessness
Poor life expectancy, high levels of morbidity and disability and the need to access a wider range of health (and other) services at a younger age and for longer than other areas of Scotland
Appropriately meeting the needs of an increasingly ethnically and culturally diverse population and delivering accessible, needs based services
High demand on resources associated with mitigating the impact of health inequalities on individuals rather than influencing their prevention upstream.

Priorities for preventing ill-health and early intervention

These include:

Improve identification and support to vulnerable children and families
Enable disadvantaged groups to use services in a way which reflects their needs
Increase identification of and reduce key risk factors including those associated health inequalities (smoking, healthy weight, drug, alcohol use and poverty mitigation)
Promote mental well-being, reduce disabling distress and suicide and ensure early intervention for mental ill health
Embed the principles of the health promoting health service across care settings
Increase the use of anticipatory care planning; vaccinations and screening
Increase the proportion of key conditions including cancer and dementia detected at an early stage
Enable older people to stay healthy
Reduce harm from external hazards to health.

DPH Report

Healthy minds: the report of the director of public health on population health in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 2017-2019