Agenda item

13:55

An Annual Report is a statutory duty of each Director of Public Health and it is a duty of the County Council to publish this report.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Jonathan McWilliam will present his independent Annual Report for 2017/18 (JHO11). Members of the Committee are asked to receive the report and consider the key issues which it would like to see taken forward in the year ahead.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Jonathan McWilliam, presented his independent Annual Report for 2017/18 (JHO11). The Committee was asked to receive the report and to consider any key issues which it would like to see taken forward in the year ahead.

Dr McWilliam highlighted the following for 2017/18:

-       There had been good signs of organisations such as health, housing and planning working together to highlight solutions to be worked for together. For example, the work undertaken with residents in Barton and Bicester;

-       Many indicators had seen an improvement, such as those for smoking (though there was a need to maintain an oversight in particular on smoking amongst manual workers);

-       Positive work was ongoing with mental wellbeing, for example, good work was taking place by school health nurses and work with the military and veterans;

-       Infectious diseases were doing well, but there was a need to be on our guard for any new infections.

Cllr Pressel highlighted a number of issues and Dr McWilliam responded as follows:

-       Healthy new towns – how are we spreading the learning? Dr McWilliam responded that Public Health was taking part in discussions in relation to this;

-       The need to integrate health issues into local planning? – Dr McWilliam stated that organisations were doing much better in relation to this as compared to ten years ago, though this still needed to be monitored;

-       The lack of support for breastfeeding mothers in the communities, some baby cafes were struggling – Dr McWilliam commented that the amount of support for this was unknown;

-       Health inequalities needed to feature prominently in all strategies – how was it monitored?  Dr McWilliam stated that more targets could always  be produced, but all strategies had inequalities written into them and this was being worked on at the moment by the Health Inequalities Commission;

-       How can this Committee lobby the Government for a minimum price for alcohol and a watershed in advertising fast food to be set at 9pm? Dr McWilliam stated that in his view the Government was doing well in tightening the screening of obesity using non-legislative means and there was an increasing gradual awareness amongst the population;

-       How to survey and target the pockets of areas in Oxfordshire where oral health was poor – does it go far enough? – Dr McWilliam agreed that the national survey of oral health in children did not reach wide enough;

-       STI’s, are very high in Oxford - how do the statistics compare with comparable cities? – Dr McWilliam responded that Oxford was comparable with similar cities and urban areas;

-       Dementia statistics had risen over the last 10 years. It was understood the Oxford City figures were lower, are they increasing at a different rate?  - Dr McWilliam responded that it was too complicated to draw conclusions as it involved different lifestyles;

-       When would staff be recruited to the Healthy Living Team? – Dr McWilliam stated he was not aware of any problems;

-       Tests for tongue-tie in breastfed babies? – Dr McWilliam responded that this would be included on the list for exploration. He undertook to circulated information on this issue; and

-       The need for the take-up of health checks to be improved? – Dr McWilliam stated that Oxfordshire did well comparatively. There was, however, no facility to send reminders. Public Health worked with various groups to advocate take up.

Dr Clarke asked how were the MRSA figures arrived at. Dr McWilliams responded that they were reported nationally from hospitals. Any record on community acquired strains was far more pathogenic. He agreed to circulate a more detailed response to this.

Dr Cohen suggested the inclusion of a further group in relation to cardio-diabetes, and also stated his view that much could be improved if inequalities were targeted in a much more targeted way.

Dr Ruddle expressed his appreciation that mental health issues had been included in light of the large rise in teenager mental health problems. He asked how this was taken forward in terms of priority judgements in Oxfordshire? Dr McWilliam responded that it was the ‘cinderella’ of services and had been included in his report for the past 4/5 years. It had also been well raised by councillors and the public and this had helped enormously. He added that there was good clarity in the communities and good advocacy groups.

At the end of the discussion it was AGREED that the following recommendations go forward for Cabinet: to

(a)  ask Cabinet to consider lobbying the Government for a minimum price on alcohol and a watershed of 9pm for the advertising of fast food on TV; and

(b)  RECOMMEND Cabinet to ensure that there is an evaluation of the Healthy Towns project when it comes to an end and also to ensure decisions are made on how to spread the learning arising from the project.

The Committee thanked Dr McWilliam for all his good work over the years as Director of Public Health for Oxfordshire and in his role as adviser to the Committee and wished him well in his retirement.