How to fix the NHS: Public health
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s final episode, Sarah-Jane and Sir David look at the work going on in public health – which spans everything from preventing disease to giving people the tools and information to make healthier lifestyle choices.
They’re joined by Greg Fell, who’s director of public health in Sheffield and chair of the Association of Directors of Public Health, as they discuss areas including the ‘nanny state’ debate around tobacco and calories on menus, and why he thinks primary care provision needs some “bravery”.
Senior podcast producer: Annie Joyce
Interviews producer: Melissa Tutesigensi-Charles
Health producer: Mark Thompson
Editor: Paul Stanworth
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Add water to your will. |
| 0:02.0 | And know that from that single drop, |
| 0:05.0 | life will grow. |
| 0:08.0 | Communities will flourish. |
| 0:10.0 | A better world will be left. |
| 0:13.0 | By leaving a gift in your will to Water Aid, |
| 0:16.0 | you'll help bring essential clean water to people who need it, |
| 0:20.0 | to change their own lives for generations |
| 0:22.4 | to come. Add Water Aid to your will. Search WaterAid legacy to find out how. For unlimited all-day |
| 0:31.4 | travel in London, think TFL. With the daily cap fair frozen until March 27, travel as much as you like on tube, bus, Elizabeth Line, DLR and Overground, knowing you'll never pay any more than £8.90 in Zones 1 and 2. |
| 0:48.3 | Download TFL Go to plan your journey. To the Mayor of London and TFL, every journey matters. |
| 0:55.5 | Always use the same card of device when touching in and out for full terms and conditions such TFL fare capping. |
| 1:02.5 | Hello, it's Sarah Jane with you for a final episode, trying to find some fixes for the NHS, |
| 1:08.4 | especially in the places we're most familiar with. We've explored emergency |
| 1:12.3 | care, cancer care and mental health so far. You can scroll back to listen to those episodes |
| 1:17.4 | in our feed. This time, we're talking about public health, the health of the population. |
| 1:24.7 | Sir David Nicholson, who used to run the NHS in England, is back once again, and we should start with a definition, David. |
| 1:30.9 | It is anything, any interventions, any surveillance that affects improves the health of the population. |
| 1:37.8 | Although public health is based in the Department of Health, Chris Witty, the Chief Medical Officer, |
| 1:42.7 | they are responsible for the totality of public health interventions across government. And I think as we have a conversation, |
| 1:49.0 | we'll see how important that is. It has a proud tradition of intervention going back at least |
| 1:55.3 | 200 years. If you think about everything from drainage through to the major communicable diseases, smallpox, |
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