Month: June 2019

There are many reasons why taking a life course approach to health is important. It’s hard to imagine that we haven’t always known some of the things that we’ve learnt through the power of life course research. For example, just how formative the early years are for laying the foundations for our future health and … Read more

Dear everyone New Chief Medical Officer and Deputy It is a pleasure to warmly welcome Professor Chris Whitty’s appointment as the next Chief Medical Officer to succeed Dame Professor Sally Davies. Chris blends a career of science, medicine and public health and we look forward to working with him in furthering the protection and improvement … Read more

Working in PHE centres, we see some illnesses regularly and have well-rehearsed processes in place. But some diseases are more unusual than others, for which we must be well prepared. We don’t often hear about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in this country – a respiratory illness caused by the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which is … Read more

There are around 11 million people across the UK with hearing loss – the partial or total inability to hear in one or both ears, of whom 50,000 are children. The Health Profile for England: 2018 highlighted that hearing loss, together with vision loss, skin diseases and oral problems account for nearly 20% of morbidity … Read more

What is Local Health? Local Health presents indicators for small areas. Providing data for electoral wards and middle super output areas (MSOAs) allows users to look at variation in health within larger areas, such as local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). The tool has been updated, providing new data for small areas in England. … Read more

Dear everyone Taking tobacco out of the NHS Every day thousands of people are being admitted to hospital because of smoking-related conditions, with one in four hospital beds occupied by a smoker. It cannot be right that it is more acceptable to smoke at the front door of some hospitals than it is outside a … Read more

Dear everyone The importance of two MMR doses New data published today tells us that in the first quarter of 2019 there were 231 confirmed cases of measles and 795 confirmed cases of mumps in England. For measles this figure is slightly lower compared to the same quarter last year, whereas for mumps there has … Read more

The latest edition of Health Matters, PHE’s professional resource, focuses on taking a life course approach to the prevention of ill health and explores the evidence base for this approach. The resource signposts to evidence-based interventions and tools, as well as to evaluation and monitoring techniques. This blog provides a summary of the full edition’s … Read more

Dear everyone Health as a balance sheet asset, not a cost The forthcoming Green Paper on Prevention is a fabulous opportunity to further the economic case for investing in prevention as the arbiter of wealth creation. We know that health begets wealth and securing the health of the people is a UK investment in our … Read more