Prevention of ill health

Where we will invest

• We will allocate greater resource to activities that will
• prevent ill health
• postpone ill health
• lessen disease complication
• reduce unequal provision of services

By resources we mean:

• the money we invest
• the people we employ, or those who we commission
• the buildings and facilities we use

We aim to increase both the quantity and the quality of services aimed at prevention.

Key actions 

• strengthening primary care – especially general practice, but also pharmacy, ophthalmology, and dentistry
• moving the management of health conditions that people live with for a long time (such as diabetes, arthritis or heart disease) from hospital settings into community settings
• shift greater resources to local areas where people tend to have worse health and a greater need for services

We aim to support NHS colleagues to identify opportunities, when working with patients, to

• support them in managing their condition well
• prevent their condition from getting worse
• recognise potential risks to their health
• to take action to prevent potential ill health

Our priorities for 2023/24 

• Increase take up of support for people who are at risk of developing diabetes
• Increase the numbers of people referred to smoking cessation programmes
• Increase the numbers of at risk people referred to weight management services
• Meet the national target of 67% diagnosis of dementia
• Double the numbers of women who access specialist mental health services for the time before and after childbirth
• Achieve the national targets for diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and to increase take-up of screening
• Reduce waiting lists for diagnosis by 30% over 12 months
• Reduce frailty-related falls by 15%
• Reduce waiting lists for muscular-skeletal services by 20%
• Increase the numbers of at risk of a heart attack to receive treatment or support
• Increase the number of both children and adults who have a mental health condition who access services by 30%
• Reduce the number of people who have autism or learning disability who are cared for in in-patient beds, or who are placed out of the Derbyshire area

What this means for me

The NHS in 2023 is largely a ‘treatment’ service.

We will take steps to spend more of the local NHS money on keeping you well in the first place so that you can enjoy a healthier life and not need to access so many NHS services. This is better for you and better for the NHS.

If you are a family with a young child, we will help you to make sure they can have the best start in life and benefit from the types of support that we know give children improved chances of being healthy when they are adults.

This will be a long-term approach which will see benefits in future years.

We will be better at helping you identify when your health is at risk and talking with you earlier to prevent more serious symptoms.

We will do this using data and technology and it will often mean you need to do no more than visit your GP or pharmacy, or maybe adjust your diet.

We will focus on increasing the number of people benefitting from support with managing or preventing long-term conditions, who are at risk of becoming unwell or who can have an illness identified quicker to improve their long term health.