Good health is something we want for all of our patients, staff and our local communities.
While your physical health is very important, we know that your mental wellbeing and social life plays a part in your health too. So, while we may be looking after you for medical reasons, we will always look at your health as a whole and consider the many factors, often referred to as social determinants of health, that can affect you in your life. These include who you are – your age, gender and genetics – and your behaviours that can affect your health such as smoking, how active you are, how much alcohol you drink and what you eat.
Your health can also be influenced by where you were born and grew up, your education, where you live and the work you do. These factors can result in health inequalities which simply means a difference in how your health is affected and how you access services; this can result in unfairness between groups of people and / or communities. It is important for us to work with our patients, staff and our communities to reduce unfairness.
Everyone deserves fair healthcare and we aim to provide that – no matter who you are, where you live or your personal circumstances.
Our trust works to understand the complex health needs of our communities so that we can plan interventions to meet needs, prioritise areas for development, to improve population health and reduce health inequalities. Our work looks to identify how the onset of disease, treatment and outcomes of disease vary across our patients and take steps to reduce this variation, improving health for all.
The work of our Health Inequalities Programme Board
Our Health Inequalities Programme Board helps to improve the health of all of our patients and staff through addressing disparities in illness and the factors that lead to poor health.
The aims of the board are to:
- document all of the health inequalities work taking place across the trust to share good practice. Publish an annual report on inequalities in our patient population and what we are doing about it.
- empower and enable colleagues across the trust, Northumberland and North Tyneside to identify and address inequalities within our sphere of control and influence.
- coordinate, champion and support implementation of interventions to reduce inequalities. To support evaluation, sharing (including publishing) and spreading of pilots and interventions.
You can learn more about the aims of the board here.
Our Health Inequalities Programme Board includes leaders from across the trust, local partners and stakeholders including local health authorities, primary care, local education providers and voluntary community sector representatives to name a few.
You’ll be able to see all of the work taken forward by the board to improve services and help people access the care they need, when they need it, on this page.
Our work so far
This work forms part of Our Community Promise - our pledge to focus on all the ways in which we can improve peoples lives. The promise is based on six key pillars, which relate to the wider factors that fuel health inequalities – poverty, employment, education, economy, environment, wellbeing. Find out more about the promise here.