Will NHS reforms help or hinder the health of the North?
The NHS has paid for gyms like this to improve public health, but will that still happen under the Government's reforms?
The North East has always been an area dogged by health problems.
Life expectancy is shorter than average, rates of heart disease and cancer have historically been high.
The legacy of heavy industry has often been industrial diseases.
But there has been some progress in recent years, with smoking and heart attacks on the decline.
It has been the region's which have overseen those improvements, yet the Government wants to scrap them.
They don't think there has been enough progress on public health.
And so .
They will get a ring-fenced budget to spend on public health, and the current officers in charge of the policy in the PCTs will be employed by councils.
Local authorities will also be able to get a premium of extra money if they can show they have made significant inroads into an area's public health problems.
And despite the progress in the North East, .
The region has the highest rates of obesity in the country.
Women in particular still die a lot earlier than their counterparts in the rest of England. They also have the highest cancer mortality rate in the country.
Andrew Lansley hopes to "nudge" not bludgeon people into better health.
And the Government thinks councils will be better placed to tackle those problems - more rooted in their communities with a greater understanding of their needs.
But public health professionals in the region fear the proposed changes could disrupt a lot of the good work done so far.
They fear the reorganisation will divert vital resources and energy from tackling the region's health problems - basically the eye could come off the ball.
And although the Government says it will ringfence funding, there is a fear that councils will nor prioritise public health in the current climate.
In addition, the , has talked about a different approach to public health.
He wants to "nudge" people towards the right choices instead of bludgeoning them with health messages.
The Secretary of State also wants to work with the private sector to persuade them to lower the fat and salt contents of food.
He believes that will achieve more than the expensive advertising campaigns the Government has paid for in the past.
But that might also signal a gradual decline in funding too.
It's something we will be debating on the Politics Show this Sunday 13 February at 12pm on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú1.
I'm Richard Moss, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
Comments
or to comment.