PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTORATE

The role of the Public Health Directorate is to assess the health needs of the population and working with others to develop policies to meet those needs. The Directorate is multi-disciplinary and works closely not only with divisions within the DHSS but with other Government Departments and Statutory Boards.

Key Public Health Activities

The Directorate defines three overlapping domains in which public health professionals practice:

• Health Improvement
• Health Protection
• Health Service Quality and Utilisation

Health Improvement

As the name implies, this function aims to improve the health of the people of the Island by encouraging healthy lifestyles, enabling legislative changes which will help to improve the health and monitoring the impact of various factors on health.

Included under this are issues like Inequalities, Healthy Schools, Housing and Health, Family/community, Lifestyles including Obesity, Tobacco and Oral Health, Surveillance and monitoring of specific diseases and risk factors.

Health Protection

Health Protection ensures that the health of the population is protected from adverse influences.

The major adverse influences are infectious and communicable diseases, chemicals and poisons, radiation, emergency response and environmental health hazards. As part of this, the Directorate is leading the DHSS preparations for dealing with a flu pandemic.

Health Service Quality and Utilisation

Health Services need to be effective, efficient and acceptable to the population.

The starting point for planning services is assessment of health and health care needs and this is undertaken by the Public Health Directorate. The Directorate is further involved in ensuring that the services are effective (i.e. that they improve health) as well as economically efficient (value for money).

The Directorate is also involved in improving qualify of the clinical services.

Clinical effectiveness, Efficiency, Service planning, Audit and evaluation, Clinical governance, Equity.

An additional section has been added to this site to include:

Health Intelligence

Surveys, Local statistical information.

Public Health Report

This is a report on the state of the health of the population to provide guidance to planning of services. As the health of the population does not signficantly change from year to year this report is not produced annually.

To download a copy of reports produced please click the link below.

Public Health Report - 2005

Public Health Report - 2003

This page was last updated on 27 August 2008.