Present
- Councillor Mrs J M Peet (Chairman)
- Councillor S Dawber
- Councillor S J Greensmith
- Councillor Mrs J Hurst
- Councillor E Russon
- Councillor J Talbot
- Councillor K Cunliffe – Portfolio Holder for Healthier Communities and Older People
Officers in attendance
- Kay Cullen – Trainee Committee Services Officer
- Gary Finch – Principal Officer – Scrutiny
- Margaret McKenzie – Solicitor
- Bernard Walker – Executive Director – Health and Well-being
External Organisation Officers in attendance
- Julie Hotchkiss – Public Health Consultant - Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
- Umesh Patel – Head of Medicines Management - Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
- Linda Scott – Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
- Dr David Valentine – Medical Director – Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
External Organisations presenting reports
- Dr Kate Ardern – Executive Director of Public Health for the Borough of Wigan
- Dr Sanjay Arya - Cardiology Consultant – RAEI – Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh National Health Service
- Pauline Bradbury – Find and Treat Manager – Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
- Dr Kate Fallon - Managing Director – Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Community Healthcare
- Paul Gover – Head of Service – Strategic and Commissioning – Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust
- Tony Henshall – Health Development Manager - Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
- Dr Nayyar Naqvi - Cardiology Consultant – RAEI – Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh National Health Service
- Mike Parker – Managing Director Heart of Mersey Partnerships
- Jane Pilkington – Health Development Manager - Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust
61 Apologies for absence: Councillors N D Ash, N A Bradbury, M A Dewhurst, Mrs S Dewhurst, Ms L E Fagan, Mrs D Fairhurst, E N Houlton, K W McManus and R T Splaine.
62 Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Adult Health and Well-being Scrutiny Committee held on 19 January 2010 were approved as a correct record.
63 Whipping Declarations: There were no declarations made.
64 Health Inequalities – Cardiovascular Disease (CVD): The Committee received nine presentations from various officers from the Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust (ALWPCT), Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh National Health Service (WWL NHS), Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust (WLCT), and the Heart of Mersey (HM). The presentations all related to tackling CVD in the Borough.
The Executive Director of Public Health, Dr Kate Ardern, gave a presentation, ‘Getting to the heart of why we die before our time’ which gave Members an overview of the scope of the CVD problem in Wigan and Wigan’s Strategy to address this. She reported to Members the manifestations of CVD, which included heart attacks, strokes and circulatory diseases. She informed Members that the vision was to reduce CVD mortality in Wigan by 5.6% per year. Members were informed that the challenges for Wigan were as follows:
- to reduce health inequalities by delivering the short (by 2010) and the medium to long (beyond 2010) term strategies for health improvement, which needed to be underpinned by effective interventions;
- the implementation of health policies and the delivery of the health care systems that facilitated and empowered local people to stay healthy; and
- robust intelligence and performance improvement systems.
In order to achieve the above, Executive Director of Public Health advised Members that particular focus was needed on more effective community engagement and leadership. Township Forums also had an important role to play as did multi agency working to tackle the problem together.
The Head of Service, Strategic and Commissioning of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, Paul Gover, gave a presentation, ‘Health and Well being Partnership’. He advised Members that the Health Services could only do so much alone and that it was important for the local government and wider partners to be involved. He informed Members that the engagement with Township Forums was essential, to help research what works for each Township area individually.
The Managing Director, Heart of Mersey (HM) Partnerships, Mike Parker and the Health Development Manager, Jane Pilkington gave a presentation, which informed Members that the HM Partnerships commissioned to conduct a feasibility study to determine and document the viability of a borough wide CVD treatment and prevention partnership for Wigan. The Managing Director of HM Partnerships reported to Members the various aims the Wigan CVD Partnership (Heart of Wigan) and outlined what the Wigan CVD Partnerships role would be. Members were informed that the conclusion was that, there was a strong case for setting up a Wigan CVD Partnership, which needed a joint CVD vision and Strategy and was linked in an effective way to the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). It was noted that CVD must be considered within all local policy decisions; there was a requirement for a committed budget and the Wigan CVD Partnerships objectives were specific and realistic.
The Health Development Manager, Jane Pilkington, gave a presentation on ‘lifestyle interventions to tackle CVD in Wigan’. She informed Members that the NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan commission seven different services and over 200 physical activity classes every week across the borough. One of the services that the NHS commissioned was the ‘Lose Weight Feel Great’ programme. The Health Development Manager advised Members of the aims of the programme and the progress of it to date. Members were informed that there had been a large demand for the service, totalling to over 7,000 phone calls. This had resulted in a 50% reduction in approvals for bariatric surgery and also reduced costs for surgery.
The Health Development Manager, Tony Henshall, gave a presentation to Members on ‘The rationale for local action on tobacco control’. The presentation outlined the scale of the problem as follows:
- tobacco was the only legitimate product that kills when used as recommended; and
- one in two smokers would die prematurely from a smoking related illness.
Members were informed that ‘tobacco control’ was an internationally recognised, evidence based approach to tackling the harm caused by tobacco and the key principles were as follows:
- a strategic approach;
- effective partnership working; and
- a focus on de-normalising tobacco.
The Health Development Officer reported to Members what was happening nationally, regionally and locally to help tobacco control and listed all the partners involved.
The Managing Director, Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Community Healthcare, Dr Kate Fallon, gave a presentation to Members, ‘Health improvement in the community setting’. The presentation outlined the number of patient contacts the ALW Community Healthcare had per year and the number of services that were available, the biggest five being:
- community nursing, including matrons;
- health visiting;
- school nursing;
- community therapies; and
- health and wellbeing teams.
She informed Members that there were a lot of partners working together with the health service, including Adult Services, Children and Young People’s Services and Wigan Leisure Culture Trust to help improve the healthcare in Wigan.
The Find and Treat Manager, Pauline Bradbury, presented to Members the Find and Treat CVD screening programme. Members were informed that the programme targeted people aged 50 to 74, not already known to have Coronary Heart Disease or diabetes and who were considered at high risk. Patients would be invited to attend the GP surgery for a 30 minutes screening appointment, were they would be offered lifestyle advice and referred to the GP if necessary. To date 8208 patients had attended their GP practice for screening and of those screened 47% required some form of intervention. The Find and Treat Manager advised Members that the Government had introduced a national initiative, the NHS Health Check, in April 2009. As a result of this, the Find and Treat CVD programme needed the following:
- to be adapted by lowering the screening age from 50 to 40;
- the screening to be extended to be available in Community settings, to encourage a greater uptake of the screening and to reach those in the more deprived areas of the borough;
- further training for the Health Care Assistants and update sessions; and
- its profile be raised across the borough.
The Cardiology Consultant, Dr Nayyar Naqvi and Cardiology Consultant, Dr Sanjay Arya, gave a presentation, which informed Members what services were available in the Cardiology Department at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary. They explained what the established heart diseases were and what treatments were available. Members were informed that Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT’s average length of stay (bed days) for patients with heart failure was lower than the average total for Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
Members made comments and asked a number of questions including the following points:
- What was being done to encourage community engagement?;
- It was important to start the education and raise awareness of the CVD problems for children at a early age;
- Does the WWL NHS have a pathway, in the Accident and Emergency Department for patients that come in with heart problems?
- Was there anything being done with the amount of salt and sugar levels in the manufactured food products?
The Executive Director of Public Health advised Members, that community engagement was a big challenge and that a programme of work was being taken forward. She informed Members that Councillors would have an input and would provide leadership through the Township Forums. The Cardiology Consultant, Dr Nayyar Naqvi, advised Members that the WWL NHS did have a pathway in the Accident and Emergency Department for people with heart problems and that this could be viewed on their internet. Members were also informed that there was a cardiology doctor on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Members were informed that there was work being done nationally to help reduce the salt and sugar levels in manufactured food but there was also a need for a lot of political support.
Resolved: The Committee:
1) thanks all the officers for their presentations; and
2) supports all the work that is being done to help reduce the CVD mortality rate in Wigan.
