Conclusion

There can be few more challenging management tasks in any human organization than that arising from improving the public’s health. This is particularly so at a time of continuous policy and organizational change. Yet, paradoxically, despite its complexity and importance, the management role of those engaged in public health has received minimal attention until very recently. A recurring theme of this book has been the importance of the management role to public health. As Derek Wanless stated in his report on the state of public health:

A step change will be required to move us on to a fully engaged path. In practice full engagement will mean achieving the best outcomes that individuals in aggregate are willing to achieve with strong leadership and sound organisation of all the many efforts being made to help them.

(Wanless 2004: 10)