Health charity ASH Scotland is urging North Edinburgh residents to attend an event organised by the Pilton Community Health Project (PCHP) on No Smoking Day tomorrow (Wednesday 8 March).
People who smoke and attend the event in PCHP’s Community Hub at 73 Boswall Parkway between 12 midday and 1pm will have the opportunity to speak with representatives from the charity and NHS Lothian’s Quit Your Way service, which provides person-centred support to help stop smoking attempts.
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland said: “Our charity’s theme for No Smoking Day is ‘Quit and Win’ and, through our campaigning and engagement at this event hosted by Pilton Community Health Project, we look forward to encouraging more people in NorthEdinburgh to make attempts to quit smoking to benefit their health, wellbeing and personal finances.”
Dawn Anderson, Director of PCHP said: “We are delighted to support our Community Wellbeing partnerASH Scotland with its No Smoking Day campaign and encourage people who smoke, their families, friends and neighbours to come along, share some lunch, and tell their stories about smoking, quitting or trying to quit.They will also have the chance to get some personalised advice from the experts about the best way for them to stop.
“The informal event will include lunch and those who take part will also receive a small gift card to thank them for sharing their experiences. We hope people who have already given up smoking will also come along and offer support to those starting out on their quit journey.”
If you live in North Edinburgh and would like to register for the event contact PCHP on 0131 551 1571 or email Dawn Anderson on dawnanderson@pchp.org.uk .
Anyone who has the goal of giving up smoking but unable to attend the event can contact a Quit Your Way adviser by calling the free helpline on 0800 848484 or create a quit plan at www.quityourway.scot.
An innovative project to provide much-needed support to Long Covid patients has been extended to Midlothian.
Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland has worked with NHS Lothian, Pogo Digital Healthcare, patients and GPs to develop the individualised and easy-to-use Long Covid Pathway.
The pathway was piloted in Edinburgh in 2022, involving 36 GP practices and 173 patients, with plans to roll out across Edinburgh and the Lothians by the end of 2023.
GPs can refer patients directly into the pathway, which provides people with bespoke digital advice and also connects them to a CHSS nurse-led helpline and peer support.
The digital aspect of the service, the award-winning ‘MyTailoredTalks’, helps people manage their condition day-to-day while providing feedback to their GP to help with ongoing care.
Jane-Claire Judson, Chief Executive of Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland, commented: “In Scotland, 94,000 people have been living with Long Covid for over a year. We know that people living with the condition feel scared, abandoned and left behind.
“Our Long Covid Support Pathway allows us to better support people living with the condition in Edinburgh and Lothian. Its success means we hope to see it rolled out across the country, helping more people with Long Covid to live their lives to the full.”
Professor Tim Walsh, Director of Innovation for NHS Lothian, said: “It’s been really important for us to bring together expertise from a range of organisations to better improve the support available for people with Long Covid.
“We know living with this can be really challenging and patients with Long Covid need support that can be individualised and available on demand, and we’re proud to have worked with our partners to have developed such support in Lothian.”
The Midlothian Health & Social Care Partnership Long Covid Project Team has welcomed the roll-out.. A spokesperson commented: “During the pilot phase, this pathway empowered people to make a successful transition after diagnosis towards self-management of Long Covid through effective and targeted self-management resources.
“GP practitioners in Midlothian are looking forward to utilising the pathway, which will remove travel barriers while still providing person-centered support and reducing demand on services. The combination of written, video and telephone support will provide people in Midlothian access to the most appropriate support for them.
“Importantly, support and self-management resources provided by MyTailoredTalks and CHSS are fed back to the referring GP without them needing to seek out this information. The pathway will enable people in Midlothian living with Long Covid to self-manage their symptoms and access up-to-date and validated information relevant to their needs.”
None of this would have been possible without NHS Lothian Charity, which has invested £120,000 in the platform so far.
Jane Ferguson, Director of NHS Lothian Charity, said: “As the official charity of NHS Lothian, we have a key role to play in supporting NHS Lothian to take forward innovative projects that help improve the health and wellbeing of communities.
“Thanks to generous donations to our COVID-19 appeal, we were able to provide initial funding for ‘MyTailoredTalks’ and are delighted to see this now being extended to Midlothian.
“This has been a great example of partners coming together from across the sector to put in place innovative solutions that support our communities dealing with the effects of Long Covid.”
Pogo Studio designed MyTailoredTalks, which recently won the Technology Enabled Independent Living Award at the Digital Health and Care Awards 2023.
Jack Francis, Managing Director of Pogo Studio, said: “This has been a fantastic, collaborative partnership to bring our expertise in technology to, and we have learnt hugely from working with NHS Lothian, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and people living with Long Covid.
“Long Covid continues to be a huge issue across Scotland and so we’re delighted that our work so far is demonstrating that MyTailoredTalks can help to support people in their recovery.”
Almost £600,000 funding to help prevent childhood obesity
Children up to the age of five and their families are being given the tools to develop healthy habits through six projects aimed at preventing childhood obesity and reducing health inequalities.
Almost £600,000 is going to programmes such as JumpStart Tots – run by NHS Ayrshire & Arran – which has already seen a number of young children and families in the area benefit from this healthy weight programme.
The funding is part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensure all children have the best start in life and the projects support the ambition to halve childhood obesity in Scotland by 2030.
This builds on the range of actions being taken as a result of the 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan to ensure everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.
Public Health Minister Maree Todd said: “On World Obesity Day we reiterate the importance of improving health and reducing health inequalities across Scotland.
“We want Scotland to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up and we know good nutrition and physical activity is crucial for children’s health and development.
“These projects are crucial to our bold ambition to halve childhood obesity in Scotland by 2030. They tackle inequalities working with families and communities to encourage healthy eating and offering support for those experiencing food insecurity.
“We will continue to support local partners to develop these ambitious and effective plans to help prevent and reduce childhood obesity, alongside policies such as our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan and Best Start Foods payment, which are central to our commitment to ensure everyone in Scotland has access to healthy, nutritious food.”
Consultant Dietitian in Public Health Nutrition for NHS Ayrshire& Arran, Dr Ruth Campbell said: “The continued early years funding from Scottish Government has enabled NHS Ayrshire & Arran to extend the Jumpstart Tots programme to more families across Ayrshire.
“Jumpstart Tots is an interactive healthy lifestyle programme which offers families with children aged between two and five, a minimum of eight one hour sessions that are planned to suit each individual family’s needs.
“Local parents feedback has been that the Jumpstart Tots programme has helped them make changes that their whole family has been able to benefit from as a result of finding out more about the food they eat.”
Projects receiving funding are:
NHS Ayrshire & Arran: JumpStart Tots – £53,769
NHS Lanarkshire: ‘Little n Lively’ programme in partnership with Healthy Valleys – £150,000
Its #NoSmokingDay next week! Pilton Community Health Project would love to hear your stories of quitting, trying to quit, successfully quitting …. call us on 0131 551 1571 or email Dawn on dawnanderson@pchp.org.uk to book in for lunch with us and @ASHScotland@QYWLothian@NHS_Lothian …
NHS Lothian has released a new annual report which looks to provide an in-depth analysis into the health of Lothian.
The report, from NHS Lothian’s Director of Public Health, seeks to outline health and social inequalities, as well as their current and predicted impact on mental and physical wellbeing.
Public Health specialists work to protect and enhance the health of everyone in Lothian, informing local and national policy to improve outcomes for both the individual and community.
Dona Milne, Director of Public Health for NHS Lothian, said: “Understanding our population as it is now and how this is predicted to look is vital to reduce inequalities and improve health outcomes for everyone in Lothian.
“This report highlights and reaffirms what the evidence tells us about the socio-economic factors impacting health the most. When designing and delivering health and social care, we must be able to understand and address those wider factors which lead to poorer outcomes for people.”
The new report brings together evidence and research from a variety of sources, addressing systemic inequalities and the impact of recent seismic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also predicts population trends and the expected health impact of the cost-of-living crisis and increasing child poverty on those already living in more deprived communities.
Dona continued: “We are endeavouring to share this report widely with partners to help inform the collaborative work we need to do to make long-lasting and meaningful changes to public health in Lothian.
“With the cost-of-living crisis and increasing child poverty expected to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, it’s more important than ever to understand what is needed as part of a whole system approach to ensuring better health outcomes for all.”
Jane Ferguson, Director of NHS Lothian Charity, said: “As the official charity of NHS Lothian, we have a key role to play in supporting Public Health in their work to reduce health inequalities and prevent ill health in all our communities.
“Through our strategic partnership with the health board, we have provided five years of funding for income maximisation services that can be accessed by patients and their families to help mitigate against both the immediate impact of the current cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing impacts of poverty on overall physical and mental health.
“We will continue to work closely together to support Public Health to tackle health inequalities that exist as a result of poverty so that we can improve the health and wellbeing of people across Edinburgh and the Lothians, now and in the future.”
NHS Lothian will move to Stage 2 of NHS Scotland’s national performance framework for paediatric audiology following improvements.
The health board has made significant progress, completing almost 81% of the recommendations outlined by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA) following an independent review of services in 2021. This includes improvements in governance and culture.
As part of the Stage 2 escalation level, robust measures will remain in place, ensuring that Scottish Government officials continue to provide direct support to NHS Lothian.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The de-escalation of NHS Lothian to Stage 2 for paediatric audiology is a positive step forward and highlights the significant progress the board has made towards the BAA’s recommendations.
“I would like to thank all staff at the board for their hard work to implement robust and sustainable changes, to continue to improve the service and to deliver high quality patient care. I want to ensure families across Scotland are assured their child is getting the best possible audiology support.
“We will work closely with and support the board over the coming months as it continues to provide high quality services. A wider Independent review of audiology services in Scotland is on-going and due to report to the Scottish Government this Spring.”
NHS Lothian was moved to escalation Stage 3 in December 2021 on the NHS Board Performance Escalation Framework for Paediatric Audiology.
An independent audit and governance review into the Paediatric Audiology service at NHS Lothian was established following the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Investigative report into Child A’s audiology care at the health board. Following that publication, the BAA was commissioned by NHS Lothian to help fulfil recommendations from that report.
The decision on a board’s Stage 3 Escalated position sits with the Director General for Health and Social Care.
Researchers from NHS Lothian and the University of Edinburgh have conducted a clinical study to investigate the extent to which cancer and cancer treatment affects COVID-19 immunity.
Blood samples were taken regularly from over 760 consenting patients, most from Southeast Scotland, who were receiving routine treatments for cancer.
The samples were then tested for signs of an immune response to COVID-19 using an antibody test.
The study is the largest of its kind in the world with the first patients being recruited in May 2020, just months after the United Kingdom experienced its first lockdown.
Dr Peter Hall, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Edinburgh Cancer Centre, said: “Treatments such as chemotherapy can affect the immune system, so it was really important for us to understand the effects of COVID-19 on people undergoing anti-cancer treatment.
“We now have a better understanding of how the virus affects these patients in the short and long-term, and to what extent the vaccine had an impact on their antibodies.
“It’s very reassuring to see that most cancer patients can go ahead with their treatments without fear of excessive risk from COVID-19, and that vaccination offers an effective means of protection.”
The study found that COVID-19 infection rates in patients with cancer largely mirrored those of their local population and that treatment type did not impact the rate of their antibody response.
It also concluded that vaccination was effective in protecting people with cancer from COVID-19.
Dr Hall continued: “More research is needed, but this was an important step in understanding how people receiving anti-cancer treatment are impacted by the virus.
“It’s also another example of NHS Lothian and the University of Edinburgh working collaboratively to understand how best to care for some of the most vulnerable patients.”
You can read the Scottish COVID Cancer Immunity Prevalence Study in full in The Oncologist.
NHS Lothian Bereavement Service will be running the next Bereavement Support Group on Tuesday 31 January, from 2pm to 3.30 pm at Cameron House Education Centre.
The Health Foundation’s review shows over 15% of children in West Lothian are living in relative poverty compared to 11.3% in Edinburgh
The state of health and health inequalities in Scotland
A comprehensive independent review of health and health inequalities in Scotland led by the Health Foundation shows that the health of Scots living in the most deprived 20% of local areas are being left behind the rest of society.
Data shows that in West Lothian 15.5% of children are living in relative poverty compared to 11.3% in Edinburgh and 12.6% and 13.5% in East Lothian and Midlothian respectively. The national average is 15.1%.
Furthermore, in East and Midlothian the least deprived 20% of men can expect to live between six and seven years longer than the 20% living in the most deprived areas. In Edinburgh the difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest is almost 12 years and in West Lothian the poorest 20% will live nine years less than those in the least deprived areas.
The review found that trends in the socioeconomic factors that influence health provide little indication that health inequalities will improve in future, underlined by increasing rates of extreme poverty.*
The review consolidates research undertaken for the independent charity the Health Foundation by the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at University of Glasgow, the Fraser of Allander Institute at University of Strathclyde, Nesta in Scotland, and the Diffley Partnership.
The findings bring together evidence of trends in health inequalities and wider determinants of health over the past two decades since devolution and outline the consequences of worsening health in the most deprived areas.
Overall, stalled improvements in health mean that nationally, since 2013, expectations of how long people are expected to live have reduced by 4.4 years, from 90.4 to 86 years.
The findings show that across a range of measures, there is a wide gap between the health of people living in the most and least deprived areas with people living in the most deprived areas increasingly left behind the rest. The report raises a number of areas of concern which need immediate action, in particular, improving the health of children in their early years and the health of young to middle aged men.
Young to middle aged men are the most likely to suffer from deaths related to drugs**, alcohol or suicide, with the exponential rise in drug deaths concentrated among men in their mid-30s to early-60s. This group engages less with health services and is the most likely not to attend hospital appointments. Being younger, single, white and male is most strongly associated with experiencing severe multiple disadvantages, which are linked to greater risk of poor health.
Commenting on the findings, David Finch, Assistant Director of the Health Foundation, said:“Life expectancy varies greatly across Scotland. In the most deprived areas, men are dying over 13 years earlier than their peers in the least deprived areas– and women almost a decade earlier.
“A healthy community derives from a range of factors: stable jobs, good pay, quality housing and education. Poor health is almost inevitable when some or all of these factors are absent. Scotland’s wide and sustained health inequalities are being driven by the accumulation of severe multiple disadvantages, a lack of improvement in living standards and public service fragility due to the ongoing impact of austerity.
“Understanding the causes are not enough; a radical shift in approach is needed. The Scottish government, local authorities, businesses and the third sector must come together and collaborate closely with communities. Without action, Scotland’s most deprived communities are likely to continue suffering from poor quality of life and die younger.”
Chair of the Health Foundation’s Expert Advisory Group, Chris Creegan added: “This review is the most comprehensive study of health inequalities in Scotland since devolution, and while the findings are complex, what they clearly illustrate is that inequality in health is stubbornly high in Scotland.
“The public is receptive to longer term preventative interventions aimed at tackling the fundamental causes of health inequalities, rather than short term measures. They will support a bold, collective response.
“We need actors across economic, financial, social and health systems in Scotland to take note of these findings and use them to build on the strong policy intent we already have to reverse these trends and improve health outcomes for the future. But there is no need for a new strategy; over the last decade, several policy plans and strategies have focused on tackling health inequalities, most recently, 2018’s Public Health Priorities for Scotland. We have the policies, we now need action.”
NHS Lothian laboratory teams are the first in Scotland to develop and use PCR testing to detect Group A Strep illnesses among those admitted to hospital.
The tests are proving vital in helping to identify and reduce onward spread of these infections, which are particularly dangerous for children, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
Patients who are suspected of having a Group A Strep illness are typically treated swiftly with antibiotics, but this treatment impacts the success of more traditional testing methods, meaning an accurate diagnosis is more difficult and can take longer.
The introduction of the PCR testing, which is not affected by antibiotics, means patients are being diagnosed more accurately and much more quickly. A quicker diagnosis means treatments can be tailored, and the potential for onward spread of infection can be significantly reduced.
Dr Kate Templeton, Head of Molecular Diagnostics, NHS Lothian explained, “While the ongoing impacts of COVID are still being felt across healthcare, and society more generally, a more positive outcome of the pandemic has been the wealth of research and innovation within laboratory testing and diagnostics.
“Within NHS Lothian, we are taking the experience and knowledge gained throughout the pandemic and applying that to other health conditions. The development and use of the PCR test, which had more commonly been used in response to COVID, for Group A Strep illnesses is hugely important. Not only is it providing quicker diagnosis, but it is helping to reduce the spread of these infections and ultimately it is saving lives.”
The Lothian labs team is now processing PCR tests for suspected Group A Strep illnesses for all Health Boards across Scotland, a vitally important role, amid the ongoing surge in respiratory illness that is being seen across the country, and which is hugely impacting levels of hospital presentations and admissions.
Calum Campbell, Chief Executive, NHS Lothian said, “The NHS Lothian laboratory teams did incredible work throughout the pandemic, but they haven’t stopped there.
“This new development, which builds on their immense knowledge, and the investment we have made in this area, is now proving vital as Scotland’s healthcare system responds to increased and sustained levels of respiratory illnesses.
“The introduction of the PCR test will mean Scotland’s hospitals can diagnose Group A Strep illnesses more quickly, improving treatment options for patients and minimising the potential spread of infection. This innovation is proving invaluable now, but will continue to play a vital role in future years.
“I am immensely proud of the laboratory teams for their ongoing work in this area, and as they continue to support not just NHS Lothian, but Scotland’s other Health Boards throughout this particularly difficult winter.”
