A top North East public health figure has warned that spiralling heating bills are having a "significant impact" on health in our region - and that he hopes recent news of a devolution deal can help address the social condition which lead to ill health.
Tom Hall - director of public health at South Tyneside Council - has spoken out about how vital it is to deal with issues such as housing and employment if we wish to get a grip on the inequalities and chronic illnesses which play a hidden role in the NHS crisis. Speaking to ChronicleLive, Tom said that there can be a focus on scenes at A&E, but that queueing ambulances were a symptom of a much wider problem.
Tom was speaking as part of a campaign being led by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board - he also has a role as "theme lead" for health inequalities in the regional integrated care system - to ensure vulnerable people have access to as much support with their energy bills as possible.
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He said promoting awareness of the priority services register - and the support it offers to those with certain health needs - was a "really useful backstop". The register of people who may have additional needs by virtue of ill-health or family circumstance is held by energy suppliers and means support with power outages, meter readings and billing can be available.
This comes after NHS leaders in our region have warned how the steep energy price rises seen over the past year have led directly to people being hospitalised. This week also saw the Government commit to take “further steps” if necessary to make sure energy companies do not take advantage of vulnerable customers using prepayment meters for their energy bills and on Tuesday a new report revealed child poverty continued to rise to shocking levels in the North.
Tom said raising the support that could be available for vulnerable people was "just part of a much wider issue". He added: "It's about making sure that people are living in warm and comfortable homes. It has such a significant impact on health and wellbeing. It can really have such a detrimental impact if, for example, someone relies on powering medical equipment or if someone is unable to have their heating at an adequate level. These things can just have a huge impact.
"This is something we have known about for a long time now. The conditions in which someone lives inevitably impact on their health and wellbeing. The very eminent professor Sir Michael Marmot has an oft-repeated quote - 'what good does it to to treat people then send them back the conditions which made them ill in the first place'. So we need to be thinking about people are able to live their lives in better conditions."
Tom explained how the NHS crisis we are all witnessing was a symptom of something wider. He said: "The NHS pressures we see in the headlines are the spillage - and we spend so much time mopping up that spillage that we can forget where it is coming from in the first place. That's where the Integrated Care Board can try to address more strategic issues - and it's one of the benefits of having that larger scale organisation."
He related this strategic ability to tackle wider social problems directly to the prospect of greater devolution of powers to regional politicians agreed in recent weeks. He added: "The question becomes how do we get behind all of these NHS headlines and support good housing for all, good employment for all, good skills for all. This is where solutions like greater devolution come in - local bodies working hand in glove with the NHS.
"Clearly, in the context of the NHS, headlines can be taken up by ambulance waits or A&E waits - but to address those things we need longer term solutions. It's all well and good trying to help people live longer lives, but it's more important we talk about trying to make sure they live longer and healthier lives. Investing in keeping people healthy will pay dividends."
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