BHF comment
Expertise and leadership in public health must be retained as PHE disbands, BHF warns
Public Health England will be disbanded to make way for the National Institute for Health Protection, it has been announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock. It will be led by Dido Harding, head of the NHS Test and Trace programme.
Currently, PHE has a wide portfolio for protecting health and preventing disease, including trusted and accessible data resources which have helped assist with our understanding of heart attack attendances at A&E. PHE’s time-efficient Fingertips toolkit has also been an important resource in helping us to understand the impact of public health issues such as air pollution.
Preventing heart and circulatory diseases has been a significant part of Public Health England’s work, and they have produced important work such as the ‘Health matters: preventing cardiovascular disease’ report from last year that shone a spotlight on the true extent of these heartbreaking conditions. As we see a new health body emerge, it’s equally important that this kind of commitment and support to tackling heart and circulatory diseases continues.
Speaking about the new public health model, Hancock said its aim will protect people from external threats to the country’s health, such as biological weapons, pandemics, and infectious diseases of all kinds.
“It will combine our world-class talent and science infrastructure with the growing response capability of NHS Test and Trace and the sophisticated analytical
capability we are building in the Joint Biosecurity Centre,” Hancock said.
The Health Secretary also said “we will use this moment to consult widely on how we embed health improvement more deeply across the board”.
He added that the new national Institute will work very much locally, with directors of public health and their teams. “Their local insight and intelligence is a mission-critical part of our response,” he explained.
Jacob West, our Director for Healthcare Innovation, said: “We have serious reservations about the timing of these changes. 
"Rapid, disruptive change in anticipation of a second wave of Covid-19 is unlikely to enhance the country’s ability to cope with such an event. It will also not help in implementing commitments, such as those set out in the Government’s strategy to reduce obesity, to create a healthier population more resilient to new and lethal viruses.
“Public Health England has played an important role in addressing risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases, such as tackling air pollution, improving the nutritional content of food and harm reduction from tobacco.
"Ongoing responsibility for and oversight of these areas of work, and the gathering of evidence to support them, will need expert leadership and clear accountabilities to ensure that heart and circulatory prevention issues are given the prominence and resourcing they need.”
Find out about heart statistics across the UK