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Essay promoting public health
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full essay on promoting public health which I got a grade distinction so hopefully you can take bits from it and make it to your own.
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Rachel binksUnit 8
Promoting public health
Introduction
As part of my unit 8 assignment promoting public health, I am going to look at the
various ways in which public health is promoted across county Durham. This will be
through legislation, social care services, or social media. I will take into consideration
the various factors influencing public health locally and nationally to come to
conclusions on the effectiveness of public health. This unit will help me develop a
greater understanding of government led initiatives to tackle public health issues in
the UK.
Explain the strategies used to develop public health policy for it to meet its
aims A. P1
What is public health?
Public health is defined as the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life,
and promoting health through organised efforts of society. WHO (World health
organisation, 2019) the history of public health is the quest for successful methods of
ensuring health and avoiding disease in the population? Public health not only aim to
tackle the prevention or eradication of disease, but they also focus on the entire
spectrum of health and wellbeing.
The origins of public health
In 1848 Edwin Chadwick who was a social reformer played an important role in
creating the public health act. Chadwick argued that if the health of the poor were
improved, it would result in less people seeking poor relief. Come some years later
(1948) the national health service (NHS) was founded ensuring that people who
resided in the UK received free treatment regardless of their income. This allowed for
healthcare to become more inclusive and prevent discrimination from influencing an
individual’s ability to seek and receive treatment. The NHS is funded purely through
general taxation so people can get treated regardless of their ability to pay.
Beverage report (1942)
William beverage was a social policy expert and was appointed to investigating
social security in Britain. The committee that was led by William beverage identified
five problems which would prevent people from bettering themselves and their
lifestyles. His vision was to battle against these 5 problems which became known as
the five evils:
• want (caused by poverty)
• ignorance (caused by a lack of education)
• squalor (caused by poor housing)
• idleness (caused by a lack of jobs, or the ability to gain employment)
,Rachel binks
Unit 8
Promoting public health
• disease (caused by insufficient health care provision)
Beveridge’s ‘cradle to the grave’ social program amongst others called for free
national health service this disappointed some politicians, but the public were all for
this proposal and later influenced Clement Atlee's Labour Government to implement
these ideas.
It suggested that all working people should pay a weekly contribution to the state. In
return, benefits would be paid to the unemployed, people who needed to be on the
sick due to ill health, the retired and the widowed. Beveridge wanted to ensure that
there was an acceptable minimum standard of living in Britain below which nobody
fell. (BBC, 2014)
Aneurin Bevan was a key figure in creation and implementation of the NHS in the
UK. After the world wars. Bevan found a great need for improved medical care within
England, especially due to the prevalence of post war injuries and diseases. Bevan
was elected as the minister of health in 1945 and immediately took concern with the
health and wellbeing of England. especially after there being various disease
outbreaks which led to deaths that could have been prevented if there was access to
free healthcare. Due to identifying the public health needs in England , Bevan
became ambitious with the idea of creating a health service based on four principles
“one that is free at the point of use, available to everyone who needed it paid for out
of general taxation and used responsibly” (Barton, 2017) at the time of his proposal,
it was highly controversial idea which led to him facing opposition from the British
medical association and conservative party.
Additionally, the British medical association, which was made up of doctors and
consultants from England, opposed to the idea of the NHS in 1947, the BMA
threatened to boycott the service due to concerns about them. Independent status
being revoked and being forced to work for a salary. Aneurin Bevan managed to get
Winston Churchills lead physician onboard with his idea of the NHS and he was able
to convince doctors and other healthcare professionals to sign up to work for the
service. Bevan also won the support of medical professionals by allowing the
consultants to work both within the NHS and with private patients to maximise their
profits as this was and area that they were concerned about.
Although most of the UK population were excited by the prospect of a national health
service that was free at the point of delivery. Healthcare professionals did not have
the same opinion as that of the public. As before the NHS was created many
healthcare professionals worked independently. Meaning that they were paid per
patient. They disagreed with the prospect of the NHS due to it meaning that they
would be paid a salary. Rather then a fee per patient. Despite healthcare
professionals supposedly working in the field to help others since it was an area of
, Rachel binks
Unit 8
Promoting public health
great financial benefit, being compliant with the NHS would lead to drastic financial
loss for professionals.
The aims of public health
A good example to look at the aims of public health is covid 19 we have had a lot of
information which we have all had to undertake to protect us as a nation. As the
vaccine for covid 19 was released there was very little information on the safety of
the vaccine and even more so in pregnant woman, many refused to have the
vaccine as they thought they were protecting their unborn child. As time has gone on
new data has been submitted. The preliminary data showed that:
stillbirth rate for vaccinated women who gave birth was approximately 3.35
per 1,000, a similar rate for unvaccinated women (3.60 per 1,000) seen in
January to August 2021
in the same period, the proportion of vaccinated women giving birth to babies
with low birthweight (5.28%) was like the proportion for unvaccinated women
(5.36%)
the proportion of premature births was 6.51% for vaccinated and 5.99% for
unvaccinated women
Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at UKHSA, said:
“We already know that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself
from serious illness. If you haven’t already been vaccinated, this new
information should add to the reassuring safety data. Every pregnant woman
who has not yet been vaccinated should feel confident to go and get the jab,
and that this will help to prevent the serious consequences of catching
COVID-19 in pregnancy.” This accumulating evidence will also allow midwives
and other health professionals to provide better information to pregnant
women and help to drive uptake higher.
(gov.uk, 2021)
The strategies used to develop public health policy for it to meet its aims
There are many strategies’ which are used within the public health policy, these can
recognise ways in which we could step in to prevent and/or overcome health issues.
As the needs of the public change then public health need to regularly develop. The
agencies in which the public health work along side are the health and social care
information centre, NHS England, health education England (HEE) and the care
quality commission (CQC). Present policies from the department of health (DoH)
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