THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND PUBLIC HEALTH NETWORK

(NoSPHN)

Well North

Elaine C Garman

Introduction• Well North is a pilot anticipatory care programme to

improve the health of people experiencing health inequalities in remote and rural areas in the north of Scotland

• Well North is made up of seven local programmes. Two are Healthy Weight programmes (Aberdeenshire and Moray and Skye and Lochalsh). The other five programmes are in Dufftown and Rothes; North West Sutherland; Orkney; Shetland (Unst; Fair Isle and Lerwick); and Western Isles

• Well North is the north of Scotland’s contribution to the national Keep Well programme, which was initially developed in 2006 as part of plans to tackle health inequalities in Scotland

Evaluation

In September 2010, NoSPHN appointed ODS Consulting to carry out an evaluation of Well North. This focused on the identification of target populations; interventions; engagement; changes for patients and the NHS; and lessons learned.The methodology included:

• a literature and context review• sixty five interviews with stakeholders in the local

programme areas • data gathering – including plans, reports, promotional

materials and a ‘Performance Story’ prepared by the local programmes

• a workshop to allow NoSPHN and the local programmes to reflect on the draft report

Target areas and populations

the influence of inequalities on the targeting of local programmes – targeting inequalities

how the geographical areas for the local programmes were selected – the target areas

the criteria guiding the people who were to be encouraged to participate in the local programmes – the target population

Interventions and approaches

health checks and appropriate lifestyle advice and referrals (Dufftown and Rothes; North West Sutherland; Orkney; Shetland and Western Isles)

healthy weight programmes (in Aberdeenshire and Moray and Skye and Lochalsh)

multi-agency casework to reduce hospitalisation (North West Sutherland)

Some specific aspects

Healthy weight Long term conditions Community consultation and

engagement Training Engaging the target population Changes for the patients Changes for the NHS Collaborative work and learning

Other lessons for the future

Local autonomy Consider all the options Focus on health inequalities in

remote and rural areas Maximise the engagement of GPs Time for planning Use of common resources

In relation to the health checks

Delivery models Range of approaches for

engagement of patients Sufficient time for health checks Core data