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“A strong, capable, co-ordinated, a united and efficient public-health agency that rivals any in the world,” was the verdict of a review conducted in 2017 by representatives of some of the world’s top public-health bodies, including the president of Germany’s highly regarded Robert Koch Institute, on Public Health England (PHE). Three years later, PHE is being scrapped. PHE will be merged with NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre and will become the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).
PHE was created in 2013 through the merging of 129 different organisations. But the breadth of responsibilities, which include obesity and smoking reduction as well as pandemics and poisoning, cost it something in focus. But the government is at least partly responsible for these missteps around COVID-19 testing and tracing. Since Britain had plenty of warning of the coronavirus pandemic, it should have provided the necessary resources to PHE for testing, tracking, and tracing earlier. By the time it did, the government had lost faith with PHE and created NHS Test and Trace to do the job, with private-sector outsourcing to companies such as Serco and Sitel providing the workforce.
The formation of the new public body is controversial. There are questions about the nature of the change. Britain has been criticised for its centralised approach to the crisis, and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said in announcing the creation of the new agency that Germany was a model for them. But Germany’s public-health system is run by its local authorities, which the Robert Koch Institute supports by providing science and standards. The NIHP will be a large, centralised organisation, replacing the large, centralised organisation that has been axed. “This is the result of a gossamer-thin analysis of the German system ... What’s needed is proper local infrastructure,” says a local director of public health.
The timing is also controversial. “The lesson of health reorganisations is that the cost in short-term disruption outweighs any medium- or long-term benefits,” says one health analyst.
Source: The Economist, 21 August 2020
See also: Nursing Times - ‘We urgently need a clear plan for the future of public health services’
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During the COVID pandemic, ministers have used special powers to bypass normal tendering rules, allowing public bodies to give contracts quickly to commercial companies such as consultancy firms without requiring them to organise an open competition.
The usual rules were suspended in March at the start of the outbreak under piece of legislation which public bodies have used to avoid lengthy tendering processes in many cases.
Among the contracts given to McKinsey, was one where its consultants were paid £563,000 for six weeks’ work – £14,000 a day – to create a permanent replacement for Public Health England, helping define its “vision, purpose and narrative”.
Meg Hillier MP, the chair of the public accounts committee, which scrutinises Whitehall spending, said she would write and ask the government for more details of the contracts, as she believed that the lack of transparency was “sloppy.” She questioned why Whitehall was outsourcing to consultancy firms “bread and butter work that the government should be doing”.
Source: The Guardian, 20 August 2020
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The National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) and other health groups have urged the Government to pass a tobacco control bill, which imposes a 100% ban on smoking in public areas, after the ban on sales of tobacco products introduced as part of the COVID-19 response was lifted this week.
The draft Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill was first approved by the cabinet in 2018. The bill aims to remove designated smoking areas in restaurants, ban outdoor smoking in public areas, and regulate e-cigarettes, among other measures.
Dr Sharon Nyatsanza, communications manager at NCAS, says the tobacco control legislation is needed now more than ever as the country responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Cape Talk, 20 August 2020
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The Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group has developed 5 postcard resources highlighting the harms of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in the home and the benefits of quitting smoking or switching to alternative nicotine containing products. They include messages targeted at women and families who have recently had a baby, are currently pregnant or are planning for another child.
The postcards are designed to be used directly with women and families and can also serve as training aids.
Download the postcards here.
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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