What is a Consultant in Public Health?

Like Consultants in Health Protection (Communicable Disease Control), Consultants in Public Health are public health doctors. A public health doctor's patients are his/her local population and the general public. Typically, consultants in public health work in primary care trusts and government offices, while consultants in health protection work in the Health Protection Agency. Consultants in public health deal with the three areas of public health: health improvement (obesity, physical exercise, health promotion etc), health protection (e.g. childhood immunisation) and improvement in services. The workload of the consultant varies somewhat and consultants will talk about portfolios. Such portfolios contain a number of different health issues that a consultant will be responsible for, for example, a portfolio may consist of mental health, sexual health, drugs and alcohol, obesity, older people's health, emergancy planning, specialised screening and safer communities. Such responsibility may involve providing a community service (e.g. smoking cessation service) or it may be commissioning other agencies to provide the services for a particular health problem (e.g. commissioning GP practices and Family Planning Clinics to provide Chlamydia screening).

A consultant in public health is not unlike Gordon Ramsey in 'Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares' or Mary Portas in 'Mary Queen of Shops' or even the 'Hotel Inspector' on Channel 5. There is a service that's not delivering or it doesn't suit its customers' needs. The public health consultant comes in, evaluates it, checks out the evidence and best practice elsewhere, talks to the frontline staff and the consumers and putting this together, revamps the service. S/he returns after some time to check on the service to see if it is still operating efficiently. Sometimes the job is like 'Location Location' or 'Place in the Sun'. Someone comes to you with a need (e.g. there may be a group of people with a disease that needs looking after). You have a budget and instead of find the house to suit this need, you are finding or adapting a service to meet the health need. Other times, we're like the '10 years younger' programme or Jamie Oliver, giving populations makeovers by tackling poverty and unemployment, encouraging changes in lifestyles and promoting healthier eating and living. Whatever hat you are wearing, the work is ever changing and exciting. Not to mention popping up in the media or the fire-fighting of disease outbreaks!

What can Public Health offer Primary Care Trusts?

Public health teams can help with the following:

1. Health needs, health status and health impact assessments.

2. Compiling and assessing evidence including health economics.

3. Strategy development, action planning and business case design.

4. Contracting and devising models of care and patient care pathways.

5. Performance management and quality control

6. Audit and outcomes measurement, including patient satisfaction surveys and quality of life measurements.