Public Health : Policy and Politics

Public health raises fundamental issues and dilemmas for decision-makers in the new millennium. In this succinct and timely analysis, Rob Baggott explores contemporary public health by adopting a public policy perspective. Public Health: Policy and Politics covers all major aspects of public health, including the historical context, the international dimension, the role of the NHS, health strategies and targets, health promotion and the role of screening programmes. In addition, broader public health policy issues such as environmental health, pollution, health and safety, sustainable development, transport, housing, food and diet, legal and illegal drugs, socio-economic inequalities and regeneration are explored and discussed. While the book provides a detailed description of contemporary policies and their origins and development, it also offers an original analysis of the broader issues and political dilemmas. It concludes by arguing that public health policy must be less dominated by commercial interests, more effectively co-ordinated across all sectors and at all levels of government, more inclusive and open, that it should be based on sound and independent research into the range of factors likely to affect health, and more sensitive to the perspectives of ordinary people. The book will be of interest to professionals working in the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector, students of health and social welfare policy, politics and environmental studies, and will be of general interest to those wishing to know more about contemporary public health issues. Rob Baggott is Professor of Public Policy at De Montfort University and Director of the Health Policy Research Unit. He has published widely in the field of public policy and health studies and is the author of Health and Health Care in Britain 2nd edition.