Food & Health Alliance

A component of the Health Promoting Health Service (HPHS) concept is that ‘every healthcare contact is a health improvement opportunity’. All NHS sectors have a contribution to make to health improvement. HPHS aims to support the development of a health promoting culture and embed effective health improvement practice within NHS Scotland.

The HPHS approach is based on tackling health inequalities, participation at local and community levels, empowerment of individuals and an emphasis on the sustainability of approaches and projects.

Current work of the HPHS is detailed in the Chief Executive Letter for HPHS (CEL14), which was released by the Scottish Government in March 2008. It includes health promotion actions on smoking, alcohol problems, breastfeeding, food and health and health at work. Specific actions are:

Breastfeeding action

• Implementation of UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative in all maternity units.

Food and health actions

• Increased access to competitively priced fruit and vegetables through retail outlets in acute settings.
• Remove all soft drinks with a sugar content greater than 0.5g per 100ml from vending machines in hospitals.
• Attainment of the Healthy Working Lives Award.

The CEL 14 can be accessed on the Scottish Government Health Directive pages in the SHOW website: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2008_14.pdf

A further action outlined in the HPHS - HLA letter specifically states all hospitals both community and acute hospitals should achieve the Healthy Living Award by March 2009.

NHS Health Scotland has developed resources to support HPHS. With reference to CEL 14 and food and health work, there are examples of good practice and HPHS case studies available on the NHS Health Scotland website.

These include:

• HPHS - Fruit Shop in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
• HPHS – Fruits & Roots in NHS Lanarkshire
• HPHS – Food Co-op in NHS Lothian

There is a network that supports this work, which is part of a wider World Health Organisation Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services Programme and Network, incorporating national networks from most European countries.