What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Public and Global Health?

There is always the data, the policy, the strategy. But there is also the reality of working within these systems and seeing how decisions actually play out in people’s lives.

This blog is an outlet for adding more viewpoints to the discourse around global and public health, grounded in real experiences as much as observation.

Experience across different areas of the system has shaped this perspective over time. Beginning in medicines optimisation, then moving into incident management, followed by community engagement, each role offered a different lens. Alongside this, there was also experience in global health, particularly in system strengthening and capacity building which continues to influence how these systems are understood.

More recently, the focus has shifted into the Anchor Programme, with a stronger emphasis on reducing health inequalities and working at a more system level.

Working within a GP Federation, particularly in engagement, offered a viewpoint. It sat somewhere between communities and systems, where both the intent behind decisions and the gaps in how they land became more visible.

One thing becomes clearer with each transition. Health systems are not just built on structures. They are built on relationships, trust and how well they respond to people.

In this new role, a few things stand out:

• Partnership working on a completely different level
• Learning a new place from scratch
• Coordinating work across a system that is not always as simple as it looks
• Perspectives that shift how problems are understood

That time working in global health sits differently now but it has not been left behind. Certain conversations and experiences have stayed, along with topics that continue to feel important to reflect on. How global health is structured. How aid is used in ways that are not always visible. And how larger organisations engage with smaller ones, particularly where the burden of risk and accountability sits.

Looking ahead, there is a clear pull towards public health at a more strategic level, with a longer term aim of enrolling into the Public Health Specialist Training Programme.

There was a point where writing, especially sharing opinions, took a step back. But the thinking never really stopped...