Public Health

Our Public Health Directorate aims to:

• Influence policy and strategy including legal and fiscal measures to protect and promote health and reduce health inequalities.
• Work with communities and partner organisations to improve health and reduce inequalities
• Provide leadership for Public Health across NHSGGC and partner organisations
• Ensure the protection of the public from communicable and non-communicable diseases and environmental hazards
• Monitor the pattern of disease in the community
• Assess the health needs of the population and advise how these needs can be met
• Facilitate the strategic development of health care services provided
• Ensure the systematic implementation of evidence based practice, clinical and quality standards for healthcare, preventative programmes and interventions such as screening; immunisation and behaviour change
• Provide support for professional development – building capacity, research and evaluation services, access to evidence base and services to ensure dissemination of resources.

On 21st August 2018 NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board approved “Turning the tide through prevention“, our new ten year Public Health Strategy. 

Find out more about our work and achievements in our 2015-2016 Out-turn report (pdf)

Our vision is to improve our population’s health and tackle health inequality.

We will build on our relationships with staff and residents across NHSGGC to adopt healthier lifestyles by working with, and supporting local communities, employers and staff.  To deliver our vision, our mission is to focus on the changeable determinants of ill health and provide clarity and co-ordinate efforts to prevent health inequalities and to enable our staff and partners to deliver our vision. 

• High numbers of children and families who continue to experience poor outcomes
• Increasing number of individuals and families affected by poverty, debt, fuel and /or food poverty and homelessness
• Poor life expectancy, high levels of morbidity and disability and the need to access a wider range of health (and other) services at a younger age and for longer than other areas of Scotland
• Appropriately meeting the needs of an increasingly ethnically and culturally diverse population and delivering accessible, needs based services
• High demand on resources associated with mitigating the impact of health inequalities on individuals rather than influencing their prevention upstream.

These include:

• Improve identification and support to vulnerable children and families
• Enable disadvantaged groups to use services in a way which reflects their needs
• Increase identification of and reduce key risk factors including those associated health inequalities (smoking, healthy weight, drug, alcohol use and poverty mitigation)
• Promote mental well-being, reduce disabling distress and suicide  and ensure early intervention for mental ill health
• Embed the principles of the health promoting health service across care settings
• Increase the use of anticipatory care planning; vaccinations and screening
• Increase the proportion of key conditions including cancer and dementia detected at an early stage
• Enable older people to stay healthy
• Reduce harm from external hazards to health.

Previous Reports

The Director of Public Health is:
Dr Emilia Crighton 
Email: Emilia.Crighton@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

Dr Bea Von Wissmann, Interim Head of Health Services & Equalities

General enquiries: publichealth.healthservices@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

General enquiries: phpu@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

Anna Baxendale

General enquiries: hiadmin@ggc.scot.nhs.uk