The healthcare crisis: is public health a cottage industry or a national service?
Thursday 18 June
Plenary Session 8
Chair:
Sir Muir Gray, Director, NHS National Knowledge Service
Speakers:
Nigel Walker, Senior Commissioning Advisor, Department of Health
Sir Muir Gray, Director, NHS National Knowledge Service
Public health reality check to finish off FPH Annual Conference
Nigel Walker started off the last plenary session of the conference by giving a brief outline on the changing landscape of commissioning. He spoke about the issues that should be taken into account including new technologies, the need to bring publicly funded services closer to communities and giving more control to the individual and the communities. He also urged for more collaboration between the NHS and local authorities to bring better services to the public.
Nigel’s presentation was followed by a public health ‘reality check’ from Sir Muir Gray. He challenged the audience to think about the key issues in the 21st Century public health arena. His answer was ‘value’: that is, a need to move from low value to high value and drive out waste. It was not to think about where to find more money from ever-diminishing budgets, but to pose the question: “Is this of higher value than other interventions for this group of patients?” He went on to state that the guiding principle for today’s public health professionals should be that the right things need to be done better, safer, greener and cheaper. In all of this, it wasn’t the scientists or the politicians driving the change, but citizens, knowledge and information technology. Sir Muir’s website ‘Iwantgreatcare.org’ was a case in point. It allows the public to rate their doctors, medicines and nursing homes. “How can any profession survive this long without getting any feedback?”, he asked the audience. He stressed the importance of forming networks and moving away from hierarchies: specialising, sharing and supporting each other. His final sobering message was that hard times are coming.
Many interesting changes are ahead and the delegates were certainly left with some food for thought until next year’s conference.