Description

Health inequalities are back on the agenda with no ifs and buts. A White Paper committed to addressing the underlying social and economic determinants of poor health. Legislation is on the way to control tobacco advertising and promotion. Tackling heart disease and cancer as the two major priorities of the National Health Service. Can there have been a better climate for public health practice since the turn of the century?

Undoubtedly not, yet the profession of public heath today seems, as it often has been at times of change, unsettled and insecure about its place in the world.

The heyday of public health was towards the end of the last century where social ferment, industrial revolution, scientific discovery and shoeleather epidemiology created the conditions for public health action on a huge scale. The opportunity was grasped by the great sanitary reformers of the day. Men like Chadwick, Snow, Simon and Duncan bestrode the political and medical landscape of Victorian England like titans. Their investigative skills, ability to influence and the action they formulated, created the foundations for the steadily improved health, which has been a feature of the 20th century.