NHS Highland Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024
Argyll and Bute Council · 24 April 2025
Back to Argyll and Bute Council — 24 April 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Argyll and Bute Council Date of Meeting: 24th April 2025 Title of Report: NHS Highland Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024 Presented by: Dr Tim Allison, Director of Public Health & Policy Argyll and Bute Council is asked to: • Note the Director of Public Health Annual Report • Support the recommendations laid out in the report 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Directors of Public Health are required to produce an annual report concerning the state of health of their local population. There is no set format for the report and in recent years the reports have tended to focus on individual themes rather than acting as a repository for population health intelligence. The report for 2024 is presented to the Argyll and Bute Council. The report sets out information about the health and wellbeing of people in Highland and Argyll and Bute and focuses on health inequalities. It starts with information about the overall health of the population including people’s life expectancy and how things have changed over several years. Then there is a chapter about health inequalities, what they are and how they affect local people. This is followed by a section about ways of tackling health inequalities. The remainder of the report consists of chapters looking at different groups of people or different factors that relate to health inequalities including chapters on children, on vaccination, on the effects of alcohol and on under-represented groups. The report is not a comprehensive review of health inequalities but is intended to generate action which will tackle this important priority for NHS Highland and its partners. There are recommendations for action which are designed to help all agencies work to reduce inequality. 2. INTRODUCTION The Annual Report of the Director of Public Health for 2024 is presented. 3. DETAIL OF REPORT As in the online report:
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2 Director of Public Health annual reports | NHS Highland 4. CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC PRIORITIES This report provides information that will contribute in some way to all strategic objectives but particularly to the priority to: • Promote health and wellbeing across all communities and age groups 5. GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Financial Impact There are no direct financial implications from the paper. Some issues covered in the report will have indirect costs but others indirect savings. 5.2 Staff Governance There are no specific workforce implications from this paper, but a focus on the themes highlighted will affect work undertaken and will also improve the health of the workforce. 5.3 Clinical Governance Addressing health inequalities is an important aspect of clinical governance. 6. EQUALITY & DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS The report addresses equality issues. 7. RISK ASSESSMENT Risks are managed in line with NHS Highlands policy. 8. PUBLIC & USER INVOLVEMENT & ENGAGEMENT This is an independent report from the Director of Public Health. 9. CONCLUSIONS Members are asked to note and comment on the report. Author Name: Dr Tim Allison, Director of Public health Email: Tim.Allison@nhs.scot