A programme to involve hospitals in teaching good health practices instead of just caring for the sick has been inaugurated by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen. The Minister said yesterday the aim of the Irish Health Promoting Hospitals network (HPH) was to promote positive health and well-being in hospitals, and by extension the wider community.
"The hospital, if perceived as more than a place where sick people go to be cured, lends itself perfectly to inclusion in the list of health promotion settings.
"The wide and complex relationships and interactions which take place there have enormous potential for the dissemination of health promotion messages," he said.
The chairman of the Irish HPH, Prof Risteard Mulcahy, said the causes of chronic illness are related to lifestyle and many have now been identified.
"The major causal factors in a developed country are few: cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse, unhealthy eating and sedentary lifestyle. Nearly all of these factors are amenable to personal control. With society adapting to new knowledge of causes and prevention, and with the changing role and function of doctors and health professionals, the need for organisations such as the HPH network becomes clear," he added.
Hospitals had enormous potential to influence the public in relation to health matters. They could have a particular influence on the health and well-being of patients and their relatives, their own staff and the community in which they were located, he added.
"There must be a much greater emphasis on rehabilitation getting people back to normal, keeping patients fully informed on how to manage their problems and how to avoid further problems."
The Irish HPH network, now involving 32 Irish hospitals, was founded in September 1995 with support from the Health Promotion Unit of the Department of Health. The concept was first promoted by the World Health Organisation.
Dr Mila Garcia-Barbero, adviser of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said the new philosophy was to involve hospitals as closely as possible with the population they served.
While hospitals were not the main agents in health promotion "as institutions where a large number of people work and pass through, they can reach a large sector of the population".
"The HPH movement is trying to facilitate some changes in hospitals, making them more suitable for the new times ahead.
"The term may be confusing, and many hospitals will argue that their function is not health promotion, but the concept goes much further than traditional promotion. Through health promotion the movement is trying to promote a total quality management of the hospital," said Dr Garcia-Barbero.