Exploring Healthcare Agencies and Disease Control Strategies in the UK

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Added on 2024/07/01

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This report examines the roles of various healthcare agencies in the UK community, focusing on their efforts to protect public health and control both infectious and non-infectious diseases. It delves into the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and HIV, highlighting the strategies and approaches employed to manage and reduce their incidence. The report evaluates the contributions of agencies like the Department of Health, NHS England, Clinical Commissioning Groups, and Public Health England. It further explores the impact of lifestyle choices on future healthcare needs and discusses service provisions for individuals diagnosed with CVD and HIV, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts and innovative approaches like telemedicine and improved access to testing. The analysis includes strategies such as sugar reduction programs, smoke-free initiatives, and the use of antiretroviral therapy, underscoring the necessity of comprehensive and coordinated care plans to address public health challenges effectively.

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INTRODUCTION
Society should build and conserve the atmosphere in which the community's members
could be healthy. Public health improvement and their maintenance are the responsibility of
all the sectors of the society. Efforts of society could be carried out with a combination of
personal as well as public healthcare/ medical care systems. This essay focuses on the role
of different agencies in healthcare and social care communities. The discussion is made on
the infectious and non-infectious disease of the country. An evaluation is made on the
various strategies and approaches for controlling the incidence of diseases in the
communities. This report uses an appropriate research for determining the current
primacies and methods for provisioning the services for diseased or ill people. The report
also comprises the relationship between the occurrence of disease and the necessities of
services for supporting individuals in the healthcare industry. Analyses would be made on
the impact of the present lifestyle selections on the future requirements of the health care
services.
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1.1
The following are the healthcare agencies functioning with a motive to protect people’s
health and their roles in the UK community. The different agencies working towards
identifying the level of illness and disease are:
The Secretary of State for Health is responsible for the overall function of the DH i.e.
Department of Health. The DH facilitates the public health, social care and NHS in England
with its strategic leadership (Pollock and Price, 2011).
The Department of Health is primarily accountable for the tactical leadership as well as
funding for health and social care sectors of England. The Department of Health is a
governmental department assisted through 23 agencies as well as public bodies.
NHS England is one of the independent agencies than the government. NHS England’s chief
role is to set on main concern and track of the NHS and to enhance the results of the health
care for the people of England (Boyle, 2011).
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have replaced the PCTs i.e. primary care trusts on 1st
April 2013. CCGs are clinical statutory body led by the NHS, which is responsible for
scheduling and ordering their local area healthcare services. The members of the CCG
include GPs (General practitioners) and other clinicians like consultants and nurses. They
took around 60% budget of the NHS and commissioned for the best secondary care services
and also plays part in the assisting the GP services (Checkland, et al. 2012).
Health and Wellbeing Boards were formed by means of the local authorities for acting as a
forum on behalf of local commissioners through the NHS, public health, social care and
other health-related services. These boards are formed for increasing the democratic
contributions in the strategic decisions for health and wellbeing services, building stronger
work relationship among the healthcare and social care, boost integration of commissioning
of healthcare and social care services (Coleman, et al. 2014).
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Public Health England (PHE) is accountable for providing expert services as well as national
level leadership for assisting public health and also work along with the NHS as well as the
local government for responding emergencies (Department of Health, 2010).
Vanguards were established in the year 2015, is a division formed under the Five Year
Forward View of the NHS. There are 50 selected vanguards which are assigned the work for
developing new care models as well as tasked with redesigning the healthcare system.
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1.2
Epidemiology is the study of the spreading as well as causes for health-related events and
situations of particular population groups and use of this study for controlling the health-
related problems. It studies the spreading of disease, a cause of disease, the demotion of
disease & health promotion.
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE (Non-infectious disease)
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a broader term comprising all the heart-related and
circulation diseases. It comprises every condition which is detected at birth/inherited, to
mature level condition like atrial fibrillation, coronary heart, stroke and heart failure.
Figure 1: Deaths from CVD and Numbers Living With CVD
Source: British Heart Foundation, 2018
Cardiovascular or heart and circulatory disease result in more than 25 % of total deaths in
the UK which is more than 150,000 deaths every year with an average of 420 individuals
every day or one death in every 3 minutes. There are approximately 42,000 people below
the age of 75 years die with CVD every year in the UK. There are approximately 7 million
people living with CVD in the UK, out of which 3.5 million are men and 3.5 million are
women. Early deaths from CVD (before the age of 75 years) are very common in north
England, South of Wales, Central Scotland, and in the lowest south of England (British Heart
Foundation, 2018).
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Figure 2: Non-modifiable risk factors include age, gender and ethnicity
Source: Public Health England, 2017
Risk factor for CVD
A risk factor is that cause which enhances an individual’s probability of reaching a disease.
There are various risk factors for getting CVD such as diabetes, smoking, genetic heart
disease family history, high blood cholesterol & pressure, obesity or overweight, physically
inactivity, sex e.g. men have more chances to suffer from CVD in early age than women, age
e.g. the older an individual is, there are more chances to suffer from CVD.
Figure 3: CVD Data
Source: British Heart Foundation, 2018
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HIV (Infectious disease)
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HIV refers to Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is a virus which attack's human immune
system. A person infected from HIV is called to be as “HIV positive”. Once an individual
infected with HIV he will always remain HIV positive.
In the year 2016, 5,164 people were newly encountered with HIV in the UK out of which
3,938 were men and 1,226 were women, with around 278 AIDS cases and 442 people
deaths. Around 54% diagnoses were reported in gay & bisexual and 19% were of other men
who have sex with men (MSM), around 22% diagnoses were among heterosexual women
and men. There were around 130 diagnoses reported among who inject drugs (PWID), 41
acquired infection from mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) with remaining acquired HIV
from other exposures (Public Health England, 2017).
In 2015, there were around 87% (101,200) people diagnosed living with HIV in the UK, out of
96% diagnosed were receiving HIV treatment, and out of those receiving treatment around
94% had suppressed viral load (Public Health England, 2017).
Figure 4: Continuum of HIV care: the United Kingdom, 2015
Source: Public Health England, 2017
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Figure 5: HIV Specialist Care in 2015
Source: National AIDS Trust, 2018
In 2015 the total 88,769 people, comprising 315 children aged below 15, are served with HIV
specialist care (National AIDS Trust, 2018).
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1.3
STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES TO CONTROL CVD IN THE UK
There were various strategies and approaches which is being an implementation to control
the incidence of CVD in the UK. Public Health England in its extensive work had made a
contribution for sugar reduction and wider reformulation programme. The program named
Childhood obesity: a plan for action is being published by the government with the detail of
PHE key commitment’s for reducing sugar, calories, salt and other saturated fats in everyday
food items. An application named Food Smart App is introduced in the year 2017 which
gives information on salt and saturated fat. PHE also restructured the Heart Age Tool that
assists people to determine the age of their heart and any risk of stroke or chances of heart
attack. PHE also published a novel “NHS Health Check Programme: Health equity audit
guidance” during January, 2017 and “The Public Health Burden of Alcohol and the
effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Alcohol Control Policies: an evidence review” in
month of December in the year 2016 for examining the impact of alcohol on the people
health, comprising CVD, with effectiveness of control policies for alcohol (Public Health
England, 2017). PHE also extended the campaign of Smoke-Free NHS which is assisting NHS
in maintaining sustainability by providing advice to patients with quitting smoke in very brief
time.
STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES TO CONTROL HIV IN THE UK
One way out to control the HIV is possible by dropping the risk of getting infection of the
virus. Condoms are a highly useful way for dropping HIV transmission as well as other STIs
i.e. Sexually Transmitted Diseases also. Estimates suggest that HIV diagnosis rates had
increased without condom use in MSM category alone up to 400% with new infections. But
the use of a condom is not a sole solution for the epidemic. It needs a combined
comprehensive approach such as the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among People with
HIV positive. The ART is used for preventing and treating the HIV infection. It is also been
accepted and approved by the NHS England as well. Treatment as prevention or Tasp should
be a coordinated part of the care plan which should be agreed among the patient and his
clinician. Crucially, all this required to be assisted by the additional preventive strategies
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