Member News
The Commons health select committee has produced a series of recommendations on the government's plans for NHS reform.
The MPs said the new public health body for England "must be, and be seen to be, a fearlessly independent champion of public health standards and objectives".
They also warned that major issues as obesity and alcohol abuse may not be adequately tackled by the new 'responsibility deal' and called on government to set out clearly how progress will be monitored, and when tougher action will be taken if 'nudging' does not work.
The 'responsibility deal' is the government's strategy to bring together public sector, commercial, non-governmental, and academic organisations to determine what business can do to tackle health inequalities through their influence over food, alcohol, physical activity and health in the workplace.
Other recommendations from the health committee include:
• The Secretary of State for Health to be given (under the Health and Social Care Bill) an explicit statutory duty to reduce inequalities in public health as well as to protect the public from dangers to health.
• The health department to set public health budgets, both nationally and locally, that take account of objective measures of need.
• The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Public Health to be given a clear remit to scrutinise the public health impact of policies across government.
• The Chief Medical Officer to give professional leadership in respect ofboth the medical and public health professions.
• The government to review its opposition to the proposal that the Health Professions Council should regulate public health specialists as an additional profession, to accommodate specialists who are not members of another regulated healthcare profession.
The MPs also warned of the need for more clarity about who will be in charge in a public health emergency – such as a flu pandemic.
David Buck, Senior Fellow in Public Health and Inequalities at The King's Fund, said the lack of progress in tackling health inequalities "is the most significant health policy failure of the last decade".
"We welcome the focus on addressing this in the report," he said.
"We hope ministers will act on the committee's recommendations by taking the opportunity to widen the current duties to reduce health inequalities contained in the Health and Social Care Bill.
"We share the committee's concerns about the potential underfunding of public health.
"By using past allocations, rather than approaching this on the basis of need, the government risks entrenching historic underfunding in some areas.
"It should also look again at the plans for a new health premium to reward local authorities for success on public health - in its current form, this risks widening health inequalities. "
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health welcomed the committee's recommendation that there should be a statutory requirement for county councils to involve the districts in the work of the Health and Wellbeing Boards.
"The select committee agrees with us that too little attention is paid to the government's plans in respect of the role of district councils in areas of England where the new public health duties, powers and funding will be in the hands of county councils," said head of policy David Kidney.
"In these areas, important local authority services, vital to the success of the new public health role, like environmental health, housing and planning lie with the district councils."
The Food and Drink Federation said the committee's comments on the responsibility deal "appear to be based largely on its comments on the alcohol debate".
"In relation to tackling obesity, as the committee's report makes clear, the public health responsibility deal can only be one element of a complex matrix of actions by a range of actors," said FDD director of communications Terry Jones.
"It is not a 'silver bullet'. Business does not 'set the agenda' through the responsibility deal.
"But the deal provides an important platform for debate and action across a range of stakeholders, within which industry can build on its record of achievement in key areas such as product reformulation and labelling to make a real contribution to improving public health."
Stephen Dorrell, chair of the health select committee, said:
"Successive governments have spoken of the importance of improving health protection, reducing health inequalities, and raising levels of health and wellbeing across the nation.
"It is an aspiration which we all share, but delivering the aspiration often involves facing uncomfortable questions which it is easier to avoid.
"Those questions are likely to become even more difficult at a time when the NHS faces an unprecedented financial challenge."
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.