The government has pledged to tackle health inequalities with a group of new bodies to scrutinise care standards.

Launching eight public health observatories - the "eyes and ears" of the battle against inequality - ministers said they would be used to ensure people across the country get the best possible treatment and services.

The observatories will monitor the state of public's health and the causes of poor health and health inequalities. The information will then be used to provide information to a range of organisations involved in providing care, including the NHS.

Run by regional directors of public health, the eight observatories will be co-ordinated by England's chief medical officer Professor Liam Donaldson.

Long tradition

He said at their launch at Greenwich Observatory in London: "The public health observatories will continue a long tradition of analysing health problems and collecting data on population and diseases that throw light on matters of national policy and interest.

"Now all eight NHS regions will have a public health observatory to implement this surveillance helping them to improve the services they provide."

The observatories tasks will be:

• Monitoring health and disease trends and highlighting areas for action
• Identifying gaps in health information
• Drawing together information from different sources
• Carrying out projects to highlight particular health issues
• Looking ahead to give early warning of future public health issues

Public health minister Yvette Cooper said: "They are key to tracking local progress in cutting health inequalities. To cut deaths from cancer and heart disease and reduce inequalities across the country we know policy and action needs to be based on the best local evidence.

"The public health observatories will provide the accurate and reliable local data needed to monitor the progress being made in meeting these targets.

"It is vital that we look at emerging health trends to make sure that public health is improving, health gaps narrowing and that policies are effective."

The observatories will produce reports and training programmes and their findings will be published on a dedicated website - www.pho.org.uk.