Agenda item

The Council considered the 2022 Director of Public Health Annual Report, which was introduced by Councillor Nigel Ball, Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure, Culture and Planning, and presented by Dr Rupert Suckling.

Councillor Nigel Ball introduced the report and highlighted that it had continued to be a challenging year for Doncaster, the United Kingdom, and indeed worldwide.  The main focus of the report focused on the longer term effects of the pandemic and how this continued to impact on Doncaster and its people in terms of life expectancy. 

Members were informed that the regeneration of Doncaster’s most deprived communities and the residents within them must be at the forefront of its actions to deal with deprivation and hopelessness.  In order to address poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity in communities, real community action needed to take place and the key to this would be empowerment, enabling the people and the communities in which they lived. This would in turn work in tackling the health inequalities faced by so many.

Councillor Nigel Ball paid tribute to the Doctors, nurses, health care professionals, ambulance workers and social carers across Doncaster, who continued to play an important role in terms of the prevention of ill-health and provided care for sick residents, family and friends.

The report, which was the eighth Annual Report authored by Dr Suckling, provided a high level assessment of how the overall health status was changing in Doncaster and that this year, it was clear there were significant reductions in life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and increases in health inequality.  These were caused by the direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases including the increase in the invasive Group A Streptococcal disease at the end of the year.  The pandemic had unearthed and exacerbated long standing inequalities experienced by older residents, those in key worker roles, those in poverty and those from ethnic minorities.  Women had borne the brunt of the pandemic which would continue and was likely to be a contributor to the reduction in women’s healthy life expectancy.

Doncaster continued to be on the frontline of the climate emergency and had continued to play its part supporting refugees and asylum seekers displaced by conflict, but there was now a ‘cost of living crisis’, caused by rising inflation because of the Ukraine war, the impact on global energy and food process, ongoing impacts from leaving the EU, on top of people’s sheer exhaustion at dealing with one crisis after another.

In conclusion, the report made the following six recommendations for Team Doncaster partners:-

•      Revitalise approaches to health inequalities, poverty and social exclusion, taking into account the new Geneva Charter for Wellbeing, learning from both the ‘cost of living crisis’ and the Doncaster Fairness & Wellbeing Commission;

•      Review and refresh the Health and Wellbeing Strategy to set out action to address health inequalities, improve healthy life expectancy, especially for women, reduce preventable mortality and related risk factors across the life course, including children and young people’s mental health, and increase the confidence in local people to self-manage their health conditions;

•      Review the implementation of Doncaster Delivering Together, clarifying accountability and deliverables for the next two years;

•      Secure long term community centred working including asset based, community centred approaches to improve health and wellbeing working with and for communities in the present, and for future generations by developing a Team Doncaster community prevention model;

•      Maximise the impact of the new Health Determinant Research Collaboration; and

•      Continue to prepare for emergencies, build resilience and maintain response capabilities and capacity, working with local and national partners.

Following the presentation of the report, Members in the Chamber were afforded the opportunity to comment on the report or ask any questions of Dr Suckling.  Members conveyed their thanks to Dr Suckling and the Public Health Team, for their continued efforts and hard work throughout the last twelve months.

RESOLVED that the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report for 2022, be noted and published.