Health Improvement Programme for
Doncaster 2000 - 2003

The start of a new millennium is a time for reflection, but as far as this HImP is concerned it is a time to look forward with excitement at the opportunity ahead to improve health and continue to modernise those services which support the quality of life which should be available to local people irrespective of who they are, who their parents were, what race or sex they are, or where they live or whether they are in or out of work. Our strategic vision is to reduce deprivation and inequalities in health through strenghtened partnerships to address the determinants of health, maximising community involvement and increasing the control that individuals have over their own lives, to better improve their own health and social well-being.

There is significantly more ill health in the Doncaster area than in the rest of the country. In particular there are higher rates of cancers, coronary heart disease, strokes, accidents, drug misuse, mental and physical illnesses.

Doncaster's NHS organisations (the health community) along with the Metropolitan Borough Council, Voluntary Organisations, police and other public and private bodies are all involved in working together to improve the health and social well being of people in this area. We are acting together to improve health, housing, education and the environment so that ill health can be prevented from an early age. Wherever possible diagnostic treatment and care services are organised and delivered to meet the needs of our residents irrespective of the organisational and professional boundaries that exist between professions and organisations.

This will need changes in attitudes, behaviour and service and organisational configurations. Putting people's needs ahead of the convenience of organisations and professions will be a major challenge but there is a visible committment and intent to do so in Doncaster. The Government's moderisation of the NHS, embodied within the development of Primary Care Groups, the South Yorkshire Coalfields Health Action Zone, NHS Direct, GP Out Of Hours Services and National Service Frameworks which ensure a quality of service across the country, is central to taking forward this agenda. In Doncaster, health and social well being is a key part of regeneration planning. It is essential that as other regeneration initiatives develop such as New Deal for Communities and European Objective 1 funded initiatives, they too address the health and social well-being issues identified within this Health Improvement Programme.

The vision that we set out to achieve and take forward within this Health Improvement Programme can be summarised as:-

• To add quality years to peoples lives.
• To provide quality care to people in their illnesses.
• To educate and empower people and communities to look after themselves.
• To have efficient gateways to appropriate primary and intermediate, integrated community health and social care when needed.
• To be assured that when secondary or tertiary care level hospital and community health services are needed they are provided by a modern, high quality, care system that provides the right care at the right place at the right time.
• That the determinants of ill health are recognised and that there are plans in place to improve them where they are below nationally accepted standards (this includes such areas as the environment, housing and transport).
• That the health and social well being in the worst off areas of Doncaster improves and that the gap with the better off areas in Doncaster is narrowed.
• That the monies provided for services are targeted on those with greatest need. That these resources are also, wherever possible, targeted on interventions that are supported by evidence of success.

The plans and partnerships you will read about in this document are all concerned with taking forward the delivery of this vision.

Further information can be obtained by downloading the full text version of the Health Improvement Programme for Doncaster 2000 - 2003.