Task 1 First submission
A.P1/ A.M1 Explain the strategies used to develop public health policy in
order for it to meet its aim
Analyse how public health policy is influenced by strategies and
patterns of health and ill health.
Public health involves helping people with their health and minimizing
problems that can stop people from being healthy or that can be a risk to
public health and wellbeing, for instance the locality of an individual might
have an effect on the type and quality of health received. Improving people's
health and wellbeing goes through three domains which are: health promotion,
this involves taking care of people's health for instance taking care of people
from disease. Health improvement, this involves bettering people's health for
instance helping people with drinking and smoking problems. Healthcare
public health, this involves making sure that health services are working well
and orderly and are available to all regardless of the wages. Public health
addresses a variety of concerns, such as obesity, smoking, drinking and
dementia, disease prevention and encouraging a healthy lifestyle because it
covers a wide range of issues this means it is expected to improve people's
health. Public health is increasingly appearing in the media more often, this
increases its exposure to more people, allowing people more insight into the
public's health.
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/working-health/working-public-health/what-p
ublic-health
10/ 02/ 2020
Sir William Bevereridge was the writer of the beveridge report, which was
presented to the british parliament in 1942. The aim of it was to abolish ‘want’
and poverty in britain. The report conveys how important it is for Beveridge to
want to put an end to ‘want’ as he repeats the ‘abolition of want’ through his
report. The report was proposed to the british public at the end of the war
(BBC, 2014). This was a lacking time for healthcare services as it was not of
priority at this point in time, this means very little time and effort were put into
it. It also meant inequality increased due to unemployment faced by many,
additionally due to unemployment it meant the number of people able to
access healthcare decreased as lower class people couldn’t afford it. Due to
lack of transport and inadequate delivery provisions, childbirth also decreased
and the life expectancy for a borned child was low (Johnson, 2017). Due to
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, Task 1 First submission
the lack of population decrease, Beveridge states it was important to ensure
safe maternity and spend more on children’s care. Sir William Bevereridge
created a new system after the war ended that allowed for free health care
services through tax that initiated welfare state which provides free health care
services, social security, council house, employment and free education and
this established National Health Service in 1948. This ensured that citizens
were protected ‘from the cradle to the grave’, this was the start of a stable
health care that everyone had access to (BBC, 2014).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1143
578.shtml
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166674
14/ 02/ 2020
National Health Services is a free healthcare service that was operational on
the 5th of July 1948, it aimed to provide free healthcare to all despite a
person's wealth and status. This system came about after public figures spoke
out about the lack of endeavour put into healthcare, which caused the
healthcare system to be ineffective. As early as the 1900s medieval systems
such as the poor law system were used (Brain, n.d.). The poor law system
involved taking poor people off the street by providing them with dire labour
jobs, so the cost to look after them minimizes. The poor would often live in
workhouses where they would be fed and clothed, but they were still living in
terrible conditions where some families would be split or individuals would be
forced to live in the workhouse to have access to any health care. Additionally,
the mistreatment in the workhouse caused people to riot, which forced the
governments to make changes (The National Archives, n.d.). Before the NHS
was created, if someone was in need of medical treatment it had to be paid
for. After the war, those injured needed to be cared for which caused chaos in
hospitals and highlighted the issues with the healthcare services at that time.
This led to the minister of health to take actions towards this, which involved
the utilization of health policy to ensure everyone had access to health
services. Recommendations from the Beveridge report were set forth which
helped in shaping the guidelines for National Health Service. Recently there
have been rising controversies regarding the funding and demand of people
accessing the service. In the past the idea of free healthcare might have
seemed far from reach, however, in this modern-day, we can't presume it is
not existing. (Brain, n.d.).
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Birth-of-the-NHS/
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, Task 1 First submission
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C530143
12/ 02/ 2020
The department of health (DH) is responsible for meeting the needs of people
in england by identifying it and implementing programs to meet those needs.
(Public Health England, 2019)
Strategy 1 is to identify the health needs and promote the health of the
population, develop programmes to reduce risk and screen for early disease.
This strategy is to identify the needs of individuals in a particular area such as
plymouth. Plymouth has a lower life expectancy than the england's average, a
reason for this is because of the level of disease such as cardiovascular and
cancer that people become infected with in plymouth which is higher than the
england's average. This might mean that people are not getting screened very
often. With the level of people having this disease being much higher in
plymouth than england's average it could lead to more or early death,
additionally plymouth has a lower life expectancy than the england's average.
In Plymouth people under 75 are more likely to get cardiovascular disease
and cancer. NHS states that people over 40s should get a check up for
vascular dementia, as cardiovascular disease can lead to heart attack and
stroke (NHS Choices, 2018). Public health officials can help with the needs by
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increasing the amount of people going for check ups to decrease the risk of
dying with cardiovascular disease. There would need to be support in place
for people with cardiovascular disease as it can cause worse conditions like
stroke and heart attack, to prevent this there needs to be a strategy in place to
promote the health of the population. Due to the high risk of cardiovascular
disease plymouth have set up strategies such as free heart health checks and
lifestyle assessments to residents by doing this they are using programmes to
reduce the risk of early disease (British Heart Foundation, n.d.). Additionally
Plymouth also supports people with cancer by using services such as
Macmillan Mustard Tree Cancer Support Centre, that can provide provisions
to support those with cancer (University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, n.d.).
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/health-profiles/data#page/0/gid/193813269
6/pat/6/par/E12000009/ati/201/are/E06000022/iid/90366/age/1/sex/1
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cardiovascular-disease/
14/ 02/ 2020
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/support/healthy-living/hearty-lives/pl
ymouth
https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/chemotherapy-outreach
18/ 02/ 2020
The second strategy is planning and evaluating the national provision of
health and social care target setting, to local and national provision, this
involves department of health (DH) research to research different fields
associated with national health. They also work with different agencies to plan
for epidemics and to put provisions in place to help in such cases. A peer
review is also undertaken by agencies where experts opinions are used to
improve healthcare plans (Francis, 2016). When planning for an epidemic,
statistics will need to be accumulated by the government into the current trend
of the epidemic to develop a way that is flexible for the future. Review and
action plan 2013 were applied by the NHS as a system used to prevent
preventable death such as ‘high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol,
obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption’. Public health
policy will have to prioritize issues like cancer as it is the UK major cause of
death and has become an issue for both the government and nhs. NHS has
produced a major strategy to prevent the risk of developing it. For instance by
raising awareness of importances of promoting encouraging physical
activities, healthy eating and trying to decrease the number of smokers and
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