Presentation to the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of Ireland winter conference. Considering the implications of the the UK leaving the EU for the public's health in the UK and in Europe. 171206 middletonj dublin

1. FPH Brexit campaign
Faculty of Public Health Medicine Winter
Scientific Meeting,
06 December 2017
Professor John Middleton
President
Faculty of Public Health

2. Who we are and what we do
• The United Kingdom Faculty of Public Health is a faculty of the three
Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow
(Physicians and Surgeons)
• FPH is a membership organisation for nearly 4,000 public health
professionals across the UK and around the world
• We also have a growing number of student, associate and international
members in more than 80 different countries
To improve and protect the public’s health: through
standards, advocacy, training and knowledge
www.fph.org.uk

3. This is a looming disaster and
priority is to limit damage

4. www.fph.org.uk
The ‘Divorce’ (from the European Union)
‘Divorce’Effects :
•On the partners
•On the offspring
•On the Friends and family

5. http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/FPH%20-%20EU%20Referendum%20report%20FINAL.pdf

6. • FPH statement on public health and the EU Referendum
 Peace
 Economic prosperity
 Health problems don’t respect boundaries- communicable disease, air pollution, illicit drugs,
violent conflict, climate change
 Regulation for health :
 Environmental
 Food Standards
 Workplace
 ‘the Social Chapter’
 Scientific co-operation – European Medicines Agency, European Environment Agency,
European Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre
 Research
 Health workforce
 Migration

7. Brexit rhetoric bears no relationship
to reality

8. Racist attacks
reported in the
month following
2016referendum

10. Public
health
and the
EU post
Brexit

11. Public health and the EU post Brexit
✖UK Public Health Network : Public health evidence to the
Health Select committee
✖A ‘risk register’ to protect the regulations for the public’s
health and counter the negative coming from big business
✖A country fit to live in….. ? An off shore, low-tax
millionaire playground
✖A self reliant, self assured, self sufficient country – where
…

12. Public health and the EU post Brexit
A country fit to live in… where
 Health, scientific and technological research and develoment are celebrated
and built on, with a renewed National Health Service as test bed, employer,
innovator


13. Public health and the EU
post Brexit

14. Public
health
and the
EU post
Brexit

15. http://www.bmj.com/content
/357/bmj.j2676
Inequalities in health cost
£65bn (€74bn; $83bn) in lost
productivity and taxes and
increased benefits payments
plus
£5.5bn for direct NHS
treatment in 2010.5

16. Public health and the EU post Brexit
 Where education is valued and grown-
 In early years
 In school years
 And in higher education generally, and in relation to
international students (international students as a resource, an
economic benefit and not ‘migrants’ )

17. https://www.sustainweb.org/news/oct16_city_food_symposium_2016/
Public health and the EU post Brexit
A country fit to live in:
 Can the UK feed itself ?
 A new Food Act to protect health and improve the
enviornment
 Would reward farmers better and be job creating
 Reduce £24B food imports deficit

18. Public health and the EU post Brexit
A country fit to live in… where
 Britain can power itself ? and
 House itself ? and
 Employ itself ?
http://www.campaigncc.org/sites/data/files/Docs/one_million_
climate_jobs_2014.pdf

19. Public health and the EU post Brexit
A country fit to live in… where
 Prosperity is possible without
conventional economic growth
 A beacon for sustainable development
and
 Champion tackling climate chaos
 Creates better wellbeing for the future
generations…

20. ‘Protecting
resources from
one generation
to the next’
The Welsh
Wellbeing of
Future
Generations Act,
2015

21. July – ‘Plan for a plan’ developed including campaign principles and how we
are going to get to three-year influencing project plan for Brexit
Getting to here…
August – Extensive internal and external stakeholder engagement to find out
what they think we should be campaigning on. Early draft ‘long list’ developed
September – Brexit Project Group established
October – Brexit Project Group holds first meeting; we begin to discuss as a
group the objectives, tactics, and strategies that will populate our project plan
– Invited Senior Experts to sit on our Brexit Advisory Board
December – Brexit Advisory Board convenes to determine short-list
– Project Group to submit Brexit campaign project plan for Advisory
Board sign-off

22. Seven principles around which we’ve developed our
Brexit project
We want to
change policy
We want a plan
that is
deliverable
with the
resource we
have available
We want our
members to be
at the heart of
our campaigns
We want to
raise FPH’s
profile in a
positive way
We want to
support our
Five Year Vision
– especially re
membership
growth
We want to
generate
income
We want to
facilitate and
encourage
wider public
health
community
support

23. Three areas of focus short-listed
1. Protecting the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control (ECDC) (and other key institutions)
2. The Great Repeal Bill – FPH calls on the Government to
introduce a ‘do no harm…and do better’ clause
3. Free Trade and Investment Agreements, a transitional
agreement and World Trade Organization rules

27. With Northern Irish colleagues in
Belfast for the public health walk
William Drennan- patriot, radical,
poet, obstetrician and champion of
public health

28. Thank you
Professor John Middleton
Faculty of Public Health
president@fph.org.uk

30. • Middleton J, ISIS, crop failure and no anti-biotics: what
training will we need for future public health? European J
Public Health 2016;
https://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/5/735
• Middleton J, Weiss M. Still holding on: public health in the
UK after Brexit. Euroheathnet journal 2016; 22:no 4: 33-35.
(ISSN 1356–1030)
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/325
945/Eurohealth-V22-N4-2016.pdf?ua=1
• Middleton J. Public health in England in 2016—the health of
the public and the public health system: a review Br Med
Bull (2017) 1-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldw054
and
http://academic.oup.com//bmb/article/doi/10.1093/bmb/ld
w054/2871226/Public-health-in-England-in-2016the-health-
of-the?guestAccessKey=8f7a33a1-bdbf-4db4-948c-
fd6b6293a259