Website of the Department of Health

Public health professionals work with other professional groups to monitor the health status of the community, identify health needs, develop programmes to reduce risk and screen for early disease, control communicable disease, foster policies which promote health, plan and evaluate the provision of health care, and manage and implement change.

The official definition of public health is:

"the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organised efforts of society"

This definition, coined in 1988 in the Public Health in England report by Sir Donald Acheson, reflects the essential focus of modern public health.

Public health has been recognised as a specialist field of practice since the middle of the Nineteenth Century when the first Medical Officers of Health were appointed in this country.