Chief Medical Officer publishes her first annual report

Chief Medical Officer publishes her first annual report:
This first of 2 volumes of the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies’s annual report provides a comprehensive picture of England’s health.
It brings together a number of data sources in one place for the first time and is designed to be used by local authorities and local health professionals as they work together to improve the health of local populations.
Watch Sally Davies talking with report editor Dr Tom Fowler about how her report can be used and particularly how it shows health information at a local level.



Professor Dame Sally Davies said:

“I have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the state of the public’s health, and found some areas where we are doing really well and others where there is still a lot of improvement needed.
“I strongly believe that data and scientific evidence should be at the heart of policy making and advice to Government and have reflected this in the Annual Report. Data should be used to inform our action on public health and to evaluate the effectiveness of that action.
“I hope the data that I have provided will become a major tool for the Department of Health, Public Health England, health professionals and local authorities as they draw up their strategies for improving public health.”

Read this first volume

Recommendations

The report looks at important areas of health including heart disease, obesity and cancer, and makes a number of recommendations around access to care and how data can be better used. Recommendations include:

• Giving better access to diabetes care – only half the people registered as diabetic receive the annual checks recommended by NICE.
• Non-fatal diseases can impose a great burden on both the individual and the NHS. Public Health England should ensure our capacity to capture data on long term conditions such as loss of hearing, back pain, incontinency and dementia is as strong as current surveillance on the causes of early death.
• Participants in the new health system must work closely together to increase survival and reduce mortality from cancers such as lung and pancreatic cancer.
• Nearly 70% of us have 2 or more habits or medical risk factors that are linked with life limiting diseases, for example, smoking, harmful alcohol use or not eating enough fruit and vegetables. Health professionals must focus on tackling these together rather than individually.

About the CMO’s annual report

Each year the Chief Medical Officer plans to produce 2 volumes of her report.
The first, Volume One 2011, is designed to be a surveillance report, bringing together a large amount of data and information about the public’s health. The  second volume, Volume 2, is designed to concentrate on one specific health issue or area in detail.
The  Chief Medical Officer’s annual report Volume Two, 2011, due to be published early next year, will look at infections and infectious diseases.

•  Read the CMO’s report