Deborah Turbitt (Public Health England) gave a presentation to the Board that introduced Public Health England’s Health Protection priorities for 2013/14.
The Board asked how the regional Health Protection Team adds value to work being done locally. Deborah Turbitt used the example of the Tuberculosis Control Board to explain how it works with the local hospital trust to control infections and bring down infection rates.
Matthew Cole expressed his concern that the Public Health Team was without up-to-date information regarding immunisations. As such he is not able to give assurance that health protection systems are robust or understand the potential risk of outbreak locally.
John Atherton (NHS England) reminded the Board of the infancy of NHS England and its broad range of new functions. He assured the Board that there is dialogue with local CCGs about immunisation programmes and NHS England has sufficient resources in place to ensure NHS England links up at borough level. Similarly Public Health England has a liaison consultant in place to work with agencies in the sector.
The Board requested that for September’s performance reporting Quarter 1 data on immunisations and screening is presented so that the Board can begin to build up a local picture and assure the safety of the population against infectious disease.
ACTION: Further to the above request, the Board felt it was appropriate to complete a stock take so that it can understand roles and responsibilities of all agencies involved in health protection and identify where the system has problems or blockages.
Deborah Turbitt advised the Board that data on immunisations has been published and is available on Public Health England’s website. She offered to investigate why Public Health and the CCG had not received this information and to clarify how data is circulated to local teams.
Dr John highlighted the CCG’s concern about the lack of information about immunisations. Dr John called for teething problems and relationships to be sorted out quickly as the current situation is impacting GP’s ability to keep on top of immunisations.