ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the most attractive features of public health is the ability to combine a specialist medical career with medical management. This allows the doctor working in public health to, for example, manage outbreaks of infectious disease, address environmental health concerns (such as the health effects of landfill sites), implement strategies to improve health in local communities (often with a focus on those with the poorest health, such as children in deprived communities), and work with senior health and local authority managers to improve the quality of health and social care. To tackle the breadth of issues that are necessary to improve the public’s health, most doctors working in this field will need considerable management expertise to influence clinical, political and managerial systems in the NHS, local authorities and other public and private sector organizations, as well as to manage the team of public health specialists, practitioners and other staff who support them. The doctor working in public health therefore needs to be armed with a wide range of management skills and expertise. The approach taken in this chapter is to outline the three domains of health improvement, health protection and improving health and social care quality within which doctors working in public health operate, and to highlight the management aspects required to work successfully in these areas. The chapter then outlines the generic aspects of management and leadership which are required of doctors working in public health, but which are relevant, too, for all doctors. Recognizing that in influencing the health of individuals, all doctors have a role in improving the health of the public, the chapter finally highlights some opportunities that all medical managers have to improve the public’s health overall.
