Public health staff need to prepare for the "unexpected,"  conference is told

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7568.570-d

BMJ 2006;333:570 (16 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7568.570-d

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Public health staff need to prepare for the “unexpected,” conference is told

Warwick Claire Laurent

Doctors and other professionals working in the field of public health need to prepare “for the unimaginable and unexpected” and work with greater flexibility if they are going to provide a service that is fit for the future, delegates at the UK Health Protection Agency’s annual conference in Warwick this week were told.

Stephen Palmer, director of local and regional services at the agency, said that in the future work to protect public health would need to be undertaken within a paradigm of sustainable communities. This would require “integration across separate domains, so that we specialise not just in infection control but how to cope with prison health issues and deal with all types of environmental threat.” Health protection in the 21st century will need a multiskilled workforce that can work across boundaries, stepping outside traditional specialties, he said.

“We are not just an infection control service. . . . [Full text of this article]

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