Better Health For All

In public health we often work in partnership with statutory and non-statutory organisations developing relationships that are necessary to implement public health projects to benefit local communities.  How often have we teamed up with colleagues where the relationship is informal, not prescribed and not expected?

April 2020 the national spotlight was on acute physical health care and there was a frantic attempt to scale up provision of acute beds and ventilators. Those of us working in community Trusts saw our services take a back seat and many were stopped altogether; but there was unease over impending problems over the horizon. What would be the impact on community rehabilitation services? What would the mental health ramifications of the pandemic be?  Would our community palliative care services cope?  

It was reassuring to network with other public health colleagues who had similar concerns. Connected by the national network for public health professionals working in providers (facilitated by PHE) we joined forces and worked as one team on this topic of mutual concern. One of the challenges for public health specialists in provider trusts is that we often work single-handedly and don’t have colleagues in a team, as in local authorities for example. Becoming a virtual team (consultants, StRs) doubled the number of people working on the project and meant we could split up article reading and writing up. It also gave us more brains to think about the implications and critique what we were reading and thinking. We barely knew each other, but had our training in common and shared public health language meant that we were able to work effectively together – and enjoyably!

So even before the term Long Covid had been coined and mental health concerns had been profiled nationally, we had teamed up and started needs assessments and were doing papers for our local integrated care systems. We even managed to submit articles for publication. 

Furthermore, we have continued regular problem solving meetings and act as a virtual department separated by a dotted line of a few hundred miles. Freed up from formal, standard ways of working – under the radar – our organisations get a greater range of public health expertise than they pay for!

Jane Beenstock
Consultant in Public Health

Dr Zafar Iqbal
Associate Medical Director Public Health
Chair, FPH Pakistan SIG