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the public health (the public’s health): the health of people in a defined geographic area.
public health: the activity associated with "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organised efforts of society".
the public health function: a robust, adequately resourced endeavour that can secure and sustain the public health, addressing health policy issues at a population level, and leading a co-ordinated effort to tackle the underlying causes of poor health and disease. The Public Health Function is the pursuit of population health improvement by a whole range of bodies.
health protection: activities that protect health and prevent ill health. These include communicable disease control; control of environmental hazards to health; management of public health emergencies; and population immunisation and screening programmes.
public health medicine: the medical specialty of public health.
Consultants in public health medicine: medical doctors trained and accredited with the General Medical Council in the practice of public health medicine and appointed within the NHS as Consultants. In Scotland, they are usually members of departments of public health within Health Boards although they work with a wide range of other professionals and organisations to protect and promote the public health. They work with the Director of Public Health to advise the Health Board about public health action.
Director of Public Health: head of the department of public health in each UK Health Board or Health Authority. Chief source of advice to the Health Board about action needed to protect and improve the health of people in the area; usually also an executive director and member of the board of these organisations and thereby has a corporate responsibility for protecting and improving public health.
Designated Medical Officer: Medical practitioner designated by Health Boards under the terms of the NHS (Scotland) act 1978 Section 14 to undertake duties on behalf of the local authority, particularly those relating to the control of communicable disease.
Public health doctors: a generic term for all medically qualified public health professionals. It includes trainees in public health medicine, consultants in public health medicine, directors of public health, together with those working in academic units, including Professors, Readers, Senior Lecturers or Lecturers and those working in central government units as civil servants and epidemiologists.
Consultants in dental public health: dentists trained and accredited with the General Dental Council in the practice of public health.
public health specialists: A term used in this document to describe professionals with a specialist public health training who are qualified initially in disciplines other than medicine or dentistry Public health specialists may come from a variety of backgrounds such as nursing, health promotion, social sciences, health economics, and statistics. Currently, the specialist public health training for such groups is not well defined, and for many there is no accrediting body. Ongoing work under the auspices of the Tripartite Project on National Standards for Specialist Practice in Public Health, involving the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene and Society of Public Health, and the Multidisciplinary Public Health Forum, with the UK Health Departments seeks to address these issues.
public health professionals: a generic term used in this document to encompass all professionals who spend most or all of their time in public health practice, including public health doctors and dentists, public health specialists, and, for example, Environmental Health Officers, Health Promotion Specialists, and Health Visitors.
the public health workforce: includes public health specialists and professionals as described above together with all others who have a role in health improvement and reducing health inequalities. This includes other leaders of public health within central and local government, and executive and non-executive directors of Health Boards; clinicians and other health professionals; and experts in a wide range of disciplines such as microbiology, environmental assessment or toxicology whose work informs the development of public health policy and action. The term does not normally include a wide range of others whose work nevertheless impacts on the public’s health, for example teachers, architects, engineers, civil servants, managers, business people, community leaders and workers, local government staff, people working in the voluntary sector, and the media.
control of communicable diseases: an important statutory public health responsibility of Health Boards. The functions of communicable disease control are surveillance, investigation and management of outbreaks, and preventive programmes, education and liaison with others who play a part in the control of infectious diseases.
public health network: A "collaborative public health network" exists when a number of public health professionals from different organisations work together to contribute their particular expertise to a common task, for example policy/guideline development, or audit and peer review of public health practice. The individuals work through their own organisations to take forwards implementation.
A "managed public health network" has a named leader whose responsibility is to ensure the task is completed and taken forwards through the management arrangements of the organisation(s) that commissioned the work. The members of a managed public health network are chosen for their individual expertise and together will possess the full range of expertise to allow the issue to be tackled in the most effective, efficient and co-ordinated way.
clinical governance — the process by which organisations are accountable for the quality and continuous improvement of clinical care provided by their practitioners.
public health governance: the processes by which governments and organisations are accountable for the continuous protection and improvement of the public’s health.
social exclusion: Social exclusion has been described as ‘a shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as low income, unemployment, low skills levels, poor health and bad housing’. Recognising the complex links between these problems, the Scottish Executive’s response to social exclusion and poverty focuses on action to increase opportunity and to tackle specific problems of exclusion, within a structure designed to integrate and drive forward co-ordinated action. The Poverty and Inclusion Task Force is responsible for co-ordinating action at a Ministerial level, and the Executive is working with the Scottish Social Inclusion Network, a body of experts representing key external agencies in Scotland. The Executive’s plan of action to promote social inclusion will be presented to the Parliament shortly.
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