December 2011 saw the release of the operating framework for Public Health England and guidance for the movement of local public health teams into local authorities from the NHS. If you haven't seen it yet, check out http://healthandcare.dh.gov.uk/public-health-system/.
Posted January 2012
Perhaps this is a little local for Public Health (Ad)ventures but as part of my specialist public health team's settling in process at local government, we run a public health network to engage as many interested parties as possible across the London borough of Hounslow in doing public health work. Our weblink is http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/comm/landing-home.do?id=8492168. You'll have to join to see our blogs, exciting events and discussion forums!
Posted April 2011
Well, the deadline for consultation on the Public Health White Paper - 'Healthy People Healthy Lives'- has now passed. All we can do now is wait to see what the outcome will be. There has been much uproar about the changes and discussion regarding lack of detail. As it stands, HPA and public health observatories will be subsumed into Public Health England, itself a sub-department of the Department of Public Health. Public Health England will have national responsiblity for public health and will devise and commission some programmes, for example immunisation. Current PCT public health teams are to be moved into local authorities. The Director of Public Health is to be a joint appointment between Public Health England and local authority. Local authorities are to be responsible for health and well-being (as opposed to PCTs) and are to set up a Health and Well-being Board per borough or district which will deliver on a locally agreed public health outcomes framework. There will be a ring-fenced budget for public health. How this will look like is still under discussion but there is confusion over who will have responsiblity for such a budget (the public health finanical paper seems to be suggesting that public health interventions will be commissioned through a number of different streams rather than a public health team holding their own public health budgets). It is a time of uncertainty and as 2011 continues, more and more public health teams will start to move into local authorities.
Originally posted September 2010, updated November 2010 and again April 2011
E-health is the next big thing for public health. For sometime, we have had m-health (i.e. use of mobiles in providing healthcare, such as appointment reminders and triaging of flu) and telemedicine (e.g. consultations with specialists over webcam). But with the rise of the silver surfer, internet usage amongst the over 65s in relation to e-health has increased enormously. It is estimated that only 7% of over 65s have online social networking profiles but already a large number of long term condition support groups (stroke, cancer etc) have sprung up consisting of the older demographic. Twitter has also seen older generations taking to the medium at a fatest rate than any other age group. In the US, social networking sites (e.g. Eons, Multiply) have been set up targeting greying internet users. Closer to home, the Department of Health commissioned a project 'Wired for the Third Age' that concluded that many older users of the internet use blogs and social networking sites to get in touch and that this provided a sense of community and engagement amongst users. There was potential to also support carers, particularly those caring for people with dementia. With the continuing recession, public health practitioners will need to consider e-health in relation to developing a different model of providing care for older people's health.
Posted October 2009
The term 'migrants' is used to refer to people with a wide range of different types of status. Migrants include asylum seekers, refugees, family migrants, international students, refused asylum seekers, trafficked persons and undocumented migrants. Approximately 8% of the UK population was born abroad and every year thousands of migrants from all over the world travel to and from the UK. As you can imagine, with such a diverse group there is a wide range of issues that needs to be dealt with in terms of public service provision. Public health work is ongoing and there are some exciting opportunities for public health trainees to undertake in this field. An example of migrant health can be found at www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk.
Posted May 2009
The latest craze sweeping through PCTs is commissioning the services of the voluntary sector. The voluntary sector has traditionally received either core funding or had contracts with the statutory sector. This was compounded by grants, private investment and income generated from consultancy, fundraising or running charity shops. However, funding from PCTs had been problematic with PCT funding tending to be renewed yearly. This made it hard for the voluntary sector to plan their services and to get and keep staff. Moreover, they spent a lot of their time focusing on securing funding. With 46% of VCS organisations already delivering public services yet only 10% held PCT delivery contracts, it was time for Public Health to review this situation. Throughout the country, contracts with the voluntary sector are being improved. A good example can be found at here
Posted March 2009
A new website is being developed to support career, skills and training in public health. Funded by the Department of Health (and its devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), the online resource will offer a one-stop-shop on career opportunities in UK public health. Kicking off in Autumn 2009, the website will include information on 80 public health roles and careers, spanning a range of levels, disciplines and settings. Users will be able to surf first hand accounts of career progression of different public health personnel and can find out about specific public health careers in terms of qualifications needed, pay scales and job descriptions. There will also be a guide on how to get started in public health and sign posts to useful resources. For more information, see the Public Health Resource Unit website.
Updated October 2009
Public health professionals play an important role in commissioning services for the National Health Service (NHS) but often they have to act in isolation. This can lead to a duplication of effort, particularly when assessing new treatments. There is also a lack of database for checking if another primary care organisation has tackled a similar problem in the past.
A new website is being developed to act as a central internet forum and document store. It is open to all public health professionals involved in NHS commisioning. The intention is to develop a new public health commissioning network for England. This formal national network could address current deficiencies in the organisation of commissioning services for public health, including sharing knowledge with local government on commissioning topics relevant to both local government and public health (e.g. housing, transport). Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and World Class Commissioning processes also require improved knowledge sharing between PCTs and local authorities and would benefit from an infrastructure to share and learn from experiences throughout the country.
Check out www.nks.nhs.uk/commissioning.net and PHCN.pdf for more details.
Updated 2009
Views expressed in this website are those of the author only. It is not associated with the National Health Service (NHS) or any other public bodies.