This post is linked to our earlier post on the 'Save the HIA Gateway' Campaign. Click here to check out that earlier post.
These comments are those received by 9th Feb' 2011. I'll keep it updated as I add more quotes.
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The HIA gateway is still today the best and most updated source of information for those interested not only in HIA but also in health in other sectors and policies. To stop the funding for this web-based clearing house would negatively affect not only public health but also all the other sectors that have benefited by joint policy/decision making in the last 8 years.
Francesca Viliani, International SOS, Denmark
I am a consultant working in the field of HIA and frequently refer to the site. In the absence of statutory guidance on HIA, the Gateway offers a great resource to allow practitioners to benchmark against best practice in HIA. There is growing recognition of the links between urban planning and health, and as such HIA should be recognised and supported as an essential means of achieving better health through planning and development.
Jenny Dunwoody, Arup
HIA Gateway is a valuable resource for those wishing to gain an understanding of HIA and its practice – practitioners, academics, private and public sector employees who would like to know about the process and training available. This is not just limited to the UK but it has a global audience and as such enhances the UK
Liz Green, Wales
The HIA Gateway is valuable as the primary reference point for HIA methodology in the UK UK
Dr Mark Broomfield, AEA Technology
Just today I referred colleagues to the portal as a resource for evidence to support development of the state of Georgia
Jane Branscomb, Georgia State University , USA
As a Professor in the Andalusian School
Professor Alberto Fernandez Ajuria, Andalusian School of Public Health (Spain
The HIA Gateway is an invaluable resource. Its loss will be an act of irresponsible vandalism.
Professor Martin McKee CBE, London School
As a regular but relatively infrequent user of HIA methodology, the gateway is always my first port of call for examples of previously undertaken HIAs on the topic I am addressing, for evidence to support potential impacts, and for appropriate tools to use in conducting a health impact assessment. I have found the gateway to be an invaluable repository of HIA related wisdom and resources and if left to languish without administrative support I feel this would be a great loss.
Jilla Burgess-Allen, NHS Stockport
International resources like theHIA Gateway in the UK are critical as we try to establish and broaden the use of HIA in the United States
Cathleen Baker, San Mateo County Health System , USA
HIA Gateway has provided invaluable support to the development of Mental Well-being Impact Assessment in the UK
Jude Stansfield, DH/NHS North West & National Mental Well-being Impact Assessment Collaborative
The Joint Health Unit is working to build capacity and skills in HIA within Lancashire County Council. The gateway provides invaluable support through sharing practice.
Deborah Harkins, Lancashire Public Health Network
It is essential that the HIA Gateway continues as a national and international resource as it is an important source of information and practice which greatly assists in the preparation of SEA. HIA is an important component of Strategic Environmental Assessment. I support the campaign to ensure the continued existence of the HIA Gateway.
Graham Esson, Perth
The HIA gateway is invaluable to Colleagues here at the Joint Health Unit and Lancashire County Council. Without it we would have no way of keeping up to date with latest happenings in the world of HIA. It would increase our workload as we wouldn't know where to go to get access to up to date HIAs that have been completed. It's also a way to link colleagues with those in the UK
Kayt Horsley, Lancashire County Council
HIA gateway is a resourceful website for both lay and experienced people who are involved in conducting HIAs around the world. It creates a standard for how HIA is done and provides guidiance for as many who need it. I believe that a vacuum will be created if this is taken away. So Yes! Let’s save HIA gateway.
Ifeoma Dan-Ogosi Centre for Health Impact Assessment, Institute of Occupational Medicine
This website is too important to us folk who are physically removed from the happenings in the UK and across Europe . The HIA gateway supports and enables cross-continental collaboration and intellectual debate and I do hope that it survives this turmoil.
Jessica Anson, Monash University , Australia
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The HIA Gateway serves as a very useful portal for HIA reports, guides and toolkits, as well as a source of valuable information relating to HIA activities and practitioners within and outside the UK
Marcus Chilaka, University of Salford
Personally I have found and continue to find the HIA gateway incredibly useful. My involvement in the HIA field has been fairly recent and the HIA gateway played a key role in introducing me to HIA concepts and methodologies. Beyond that, the gateway is still one of my top resources for collecting invaluable material on specific types of HIAs when I have needed them. It is also very handy in keeping me abreast with HIA news around the world as well as having access to international best practices in public health and HIA. Continued access to the HIA Gateway also helps to inform public health/HIA contributions in other sectors whose activities impact on health and wellbeing.
It is deeply concerning that the HIA gateway is under threat. The gateway is a valuable portal that provides vital information for international and UK UK
Patrick Harris, Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, University of New South Wales
Please add my name to the list of supporters (international) of the HIA Gateway. The HIA Gateway has been my main resource for HIA, both theoretically and practically all the way through my young career as a HIA practitioner. Without the HIA Gateway we will loose the global overview of literature and reports on HIA. This would be a terrible loss for all.
Mette Winge Fredsgaard, MWF Consult
I would like to add my support as a spatial planner who finds the resource of the website very useful in justifying and communicating the approach to health assessment to my clients.
Paul Tomlinson (URS/Scott Wilson
I believe that we should save the gateway as it enables us to keep up to date with developments in HIA and to share best practice
Bruce Poole (Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council/NHS Tameside and Glossop)
We have found the website useful to find reports from other areas in order to encourage the local authority to engage with Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment and to help explain the concept to them. It is useful to have a central resource to find these reports.
Lucy Smith (NHS Lambeth)
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I believe that health impact assessment is a vital tool for public health practice and the HIA gateway is necessary for its continued development
Stephen Watkins (Stockport PCT)
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I would like to register my support to saving the HIA Gateway. It is an invaluable resource tool, both as an instrument of basic education on the methodology and practice of HIA, as well as a very useful starting point for scoping specific HIA's and allowing a rapid and cost efficient assessment of the way forward. I have used the resources to complete HIA projects in countries in the Middle East, where gains in public and community health have been hard won, with substantial investment of time and resources. Such gains, however, may be fragile and reversible should due care and suitable assessment not be applied regarding these issues in development. The UK is seen as a leader in HIA in these countries, and the HIA Gateway certainly contributes to that recognition.
Aamer Raza (Independent HIA and EIA Consultant)
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