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Contact: James Morley Scrutiny Officer
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Apologies for Absence |
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Minutes of Previous meeting To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2013
Minutes: RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2013 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. |
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Declarations of Interest To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest |
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Declaration of Party Whip To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda Minutes: There were no declarations of party whip |
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Public Speaking Time/Open Session A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.
Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.
Note: in order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.
Minutes: There were no members of the public present who wished to speak |
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The Annual Report of the Director of Public Health To examine the report received at the previous meeting, provide comments to the Director of Public Health, and consider how the Committee can provide support to achieve the objectives of the report.
(Members of the Committee were provided with a copy of the report at the previous meeting on 14 November 2013) Minutes: The Committee examined the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health. Dr Heather Grimbaldeston provided a brief recap of the Report which had been submitted to the Committee at the previous meeting. The main focus of the report was preventing early deaths which were any death of someone under the age of 75. In tackling early deaths in the Borough, Public Health would prioritise action to reduce the effects of the four main causes of early deaths: cancer; heart disease and stroke; lung disease; and liver disease.
Cheshire East was performing well compared to the national average but was not performing particularly well relative to comparable authorities with similar characteristics. Many areas of the Borough had very good life expectancy and quality of life however the Borough’s average was brought down considerable by poor statistics for large parts of Crewe and some parts of Macclesfield. These health inequalities were a major issue for the Council to address.
The following points were made during discussion: · It was just as important to focus on ensuring people live good quality lives as it was to ensure people lived longer. · People had to take responsibility for their own health to live well and longer. It was very difficult to change people attitudes towards their health however lifestyle change was essential for some people to live longer. · To affect behaviours public health needed to target young people early through their schools by encouraging healthy lifestyles that they would continue throughout their lives. · The quality of housing had a significant influence on people’s health. The Council needed to ensure it had a good quality housing supply in all areas. · Many of the Council’s services that were not health related still had an impact on the health of service users (e.g. transport). The Council needed to examine what could be done to increase the positive impact on peoples’ health of these services as well as health services.
RESOLVED – That the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health be noted. |
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Work Programme To discuss the Committee’s Work Programme Minutes:
The Committee considered whether to include an item in the work programme on changes to stroke services at Macclesfield General Hospital. Stroke services were being reorganised by East Cheshire NHS Trust with hyper acute services being transferred to Stockport and Salford. This was going to affect residents in the north of the Borough, residents in Congleton, Holmes Chapel and southern areas of the Borough were linked to the services provided in North Staffordshire.
Members were concerned about the future of Macclesfield General Hospital as services provided there were gradually being reduced. Jacki Wilkes informed the Committee that stroke recovery phase services would still be provided with patients transferring to Macclesfield after hyper acute phase of strokes.
Members also raised issues for the families of patients who would have to travel further with patients. East Cheshire NHS Trust was focused on the best outcomes for patients however the effects on family and friends would be taken into consideration when making decisions about services.
Members stated that it was important that NHS service providers kept them informed of service changes so that they were able to communicate with the press and public when questions were raised.
The Committee considered the rest of the Work Programme.
RESOLVED – That the next meeting of the Committee on 9 January 2014 be held as an informal meeting. |