Website of the Department of Health

7. The National Clinical Directors are already working with local clinical networks to drive through the improvements set out in National Service Frameworks (NSFs). These are delivering sustained improvements, building high quality services to treat and prevent conditions such as cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease and mental ill health, and providing more integrated and effective care for children and older people.

8. In many cases, these already include a focus on prevention, such as several standards in the NSFs for coronary heart disease and diabetes, and the falls standard in the NSF for older people. And these have been backed by action. For example, the Healthy Communities Collaborative engaged older people in pilot areas working with professionals to minimise personal and environmental risk of falls in simple and practical ways. This led to a drop of 32% in the number of falls recorded by ambulance collection data over the one-year pilot.

9. But, as the Government and the NHS engage in a new approach to health policy, with new infrastructure and new action on health, existing health improvement and prevention approaches need to be adapted to maximise their impact and to mainstream a comprehensive approach to health improvement across the NHS from primary care, through hospital care to specialist services.

10. Each National Clinical Director will work with clinical communities and networks to:

11. As part of this work, the National Clinical Directors with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer will make recommendations by March 2005 on how to build a comprehensive and integrated prevention framework across all the areas covered by the National Service Frameworks. Locally, primary care trusts (PCTs) will need to consider how far current arrangements for delivery of the NSFs meet the new framework. 

Case study

The Northern and Yorkshire office of Diabetes UK has successfully worked with local diabetes healthcare teams to organise and run 'Diabetes for Life' days in Leeds, Gateshead, South Tyneside and York. These events have each attracted around 150 people with diabetes, providing them with opportunities to better understand their condition, improve their health and get to know the range of local health and voluntary services.

The opportunity to talk to healthcare professionals in the informal setting and environment provided by the voluntary sector was invaluable for people who find it difficult to raise issues in ordinary clinical settings. These events have been led and organised by Diabetes UK but have relied on the full cooperation and participation of the local NHS.