Multi-million-pound plan to tackle obesity and smoking in Sheffield

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw integrated care system plans to use the cash over the next five years to significantly reduce the number of preventable deaths and illness caused by smoking, obesity and mental illness among the region’s 1.5m residents.

Highlights from its five-year plan include new funding for more urgent treatment centres, improved community-based services to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and investment in digital systems to enhance patient accessibility to online appointments.

Working more closely with community-based institutions like schools to teach children about good mental health will also be a focus.

Sir Andrew Cash, ICS chief executive, said: “Our new five-year plan recommits our ambition for everyone in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw to have a great start in life, supporting them to be healthy and live longer, while aiming to be the best delivery and transformation system in the country.

“Our pledges in 2016 were to give people more options for care while joining it up for them in their neighbourhood, help them to stay healthy, tackle health inequalities, improve quality, access and outcomes of care, address workforce pressures and introduce new technologies.

“We paid particular attention to cancer, mental health and primary care, and the two key enablers of workforce and digital technology.

“Our 2019 plan builds on these, but it also focuses on children’s health, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, diabetes, learning disabilities and autism.

“It takes forward the work to strengthen primary and community-based care and, as a result of the review of hospital services across the region, the development of hospital-hosted networks.”

Healthy life expectancy is lower in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw compared with the national average.

There are also high levels of the common causes of disability and death, including smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and alcohol-related hospital admissions, across the region.

The plan aims to address these issues by preventing such illnesses from occurring in the first place.