More than 100 specialists in tackling problems such as obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking are being laid off by the Department of Health for England and Wales in a move that has alarmed senior doctors.
The cost-cutting move has raised doubts about British Secretary of Health Andrew Lansley’s commitment to improve public health. Some have already gone, others are leaving this month and the departures will continue until next April.
At least 30 work at the department’s headquarters in London, while the others are regional co-ordinators across England, trying to reduce teenage pregnancies, boost rates of breastfeeding and improve schoolchildren’s diets.
Lindsey Davies, president of the Faculty of Public Health, which represents specialists in the UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) and local government, criticized the “shortsighted” action and feared it would make difficult problems even harder to tackle and increase the burden on the NHS.
The faculty knew of 70 to 80 regional specialists whose jobs were disappearing, she said.
“The majority of these individuals are highly experienced in the development and delivery of vital public health programs such as tobacco cessation, teenage pregnancy and alcohol misuse. It is shortsighted of government to lose this expertise, particularly when they appear to be so committed to public health.”
At departmental headquarters, four of the 10 tobacco control team have seen their posts go because “program funding,” which uses experts to improve the effectiveness of health programs, has been discontinued. Other lost jobs cover alcohol, physical activity, obesity, nutrition and breastfeeding, child-centered public health and health inequalities.
In the West Midlands of England, posts are being lost in tobacco control, alcohol, food and nutrition, infant feeding, healthy schools and the “You’re welcome” program for 11-to-19-year-olds. John Middleton, the director of public health in Sandwell, in the West Midlands, said the loss would affect health improvement drives in the region.
For example, the tobacco control network helped ensure the implementation of the public smoking ban in 2007 and worked with HM Revenue and Customs to tackle cigarette smuggling.
“Networks of this nature take a long time to be established and to be successful. Taking them out leaves a big hole in our response to major public health problems,” he said.
Richard Thompson, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, criticized the job losses as misguided: “It is not the time to be reducing the public health workforce. We should be strengthening our capacity to address the growing health problems due to alcohol and obesity, and continue our work to reduce the prevalence of smoking.”
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