Primary Care and Public Health Special Interest Group

The Primary Care and Public Health Special Interest Group was established in 2018 to provide a forum for public health clinicians, general practitioners, academics and anyone with an interest in primary care and public health collaboration to come together.

In particular to:

  • Promote the greater collaboration of Primary Care and Public Health for the benefit of the populations we serve.
  • Explore barriers and opportunities to improving place-based population health.
  • Explore how health inequities can be addressed through community oriented primary care.
  • Explore the translation of academic public health and primary care research into local public health policies.
  • Advocate for GPs to access education and training in public health at all levels.
  • Support each other and learn from each other.
  • Collaborate on specific issues of policy, training, and education.

The Primary Care and Public Health Special Interest Group is chaired by Eleanor Turner-Moss and Kathrin Thomas. We run an active JISCMail group and hold regular online meetings and webinars. Please contact us at eleanor.moss@ucl.ac.uk and kathrinthomas@hotmail.com or kathrin.thomas@nhs.net.

The SIG reports to the Health Services Committee.

Videos and resources

Building equitable primary care: findings from the EQUALISE study

Dr John Ford, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Health Equity in the Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary University London and Dr Anna Gkiouleka, Research Associate in the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Cambridge discuss the key principles involved in how general practice can tackle health inequalities.

This webinar took place on 11 October 2023 and may be of interest to those from primary care and public health backgrounds.  

Training GPs to work in areas of deprivation

Dr Austin O'Carroll, GP in inner city Dublin and founder of the North Dublin City GP Training Programme, shares his experiences of training GPs with a focus on health equality, deprivation, and marginalised groups.

Trauma-Informed primary care

GP and educator Dr Jonathon Tomlinson reflects on the model of "trauma-informed care" in primary care and how adverse childhood experiences and other types of trauma are often in the background of medical conditions. 

The Inverse Care Law in General Practice

During this one hour meeting organised by FPH's Primary Care and Public Health SIG, hear from Dr Becks Fisher on the Inverse Care Law in General Practice and why tackling this is as important now as it was when it was first defined by GP Julian Hart over 50 years ago.

 

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 1: Mobilising Communities in Primary Care during COVID

When the UK government declared a national lockdown on 23 March 2020, staff at Elliott Hall Medical Centre, a primary care centre in Harrow recognised that many of their vulnerable patients would find it difficult to cope.

This webinar, brought to you by the FPH Primary Care and Public Health SIG (PHPC SIG), features Dr Chris Jenner, partner at Elliott Hall Medical Centre/long-term GP trainer and chair of a local virtual ward.

He describes a transformative approach to recruiting primary care volunteers and students to mobilise and support patients during the isolating and challenging time that was the first UK government COVID-19 lockdown. A BMJ article summarising this further is available here.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 2: Deep End GPs Scotland

This webinar, part of the Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health series was hosted by the FPH Primary Care/Public Health SIG and featured two leading members from the inspiring and progressive Deep End GP network in Scotland.

The Deep End GP project started in 2009 and is a network of the 100 most disadvantaged GP practices in Scotland - who have worked on innovative projects to address inequalities in practice to research and advocacy that has changed policy across Scotland. Dr Carey Lunan MBE is the former chair of the RCGP in Scotland, a GP in Craigmillar in Edinburgh and currently chairs the Deep End GP project.

Dr David Blane, a GP in south Glasgow and academic at the University of Glasgow, is the academic lead for Deep End GPs. Throughout the webinar they discuss how their work has been affected by COVID, what approaches the group have taken over the last 12 months to tackle inequalities and the social determinants of health, and how public health can work better with primary care to improve health equity.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 3: Integration of Public Health & Primary Care

As part of the third webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

  • Dr Luisa Pettigrew, visiting clinical Fellow at the Nuffield Trust and academic GP in London/LSHTM
  • Dr Bernd Rechel, honorary Associate Professor at LSHTM working on health systems and health policy across Europe
  • Dr Richard Garlick, retired GP and Consultant in Public Health
  • Dr May van Schalkwyk, specialist registrar in public health and Academic Clinical Fellow, Imperial College London

The group wrote a polemic published in the BMJ in February 2021 calling out the lack of integration between public health and primary care in COVID responses across the UK and in England particularly, despite clear opportunities with emerging Primary Care Networks.

Why did it take until the vaccine roll-out for GPs and primary care to be included in the national response? Why were test and trace systems so separate from primary care (and even, in England to an extent, the NHS)? How can we learn from the pandemic and from overseas to strengthen future emergency responses, and improve community health through better joined-up working?

Discover thought-provoking and insightful talks from our panel of speakers ranging from evidence of best practice internationally on primary care/public health integration, personal experiences of dual training and potential next steps for networked working and public health in primary care.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 4: Trauma-informed primary care

As part of the fourth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

  • Dr Sarah Temple, GP with a special interest in neurodevelopment, founder of EHCAP, a consultancy working to improve outcomes into adulthood for children and young people
  • Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, Hackney-based GP in east London, trustee at the Centre for Health and the Public Interest and advocate for social justice through a radical approach to primary care

Hear more about the philosophy of 'Trauma-Informed Care' - a model of care increasingly spoken about that aims to increase people's sense of safety, trust, support and choice when it comes to accessing help. Greater recognition is now being given to the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma as a whole on presentations to healthcare services. Listen to what expert speakers suggest on how primary care practices and networks could learn from this emerging field to best support people in need.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 5: Community Health Worker model

As part of the fifth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

  • Dr Matt Harris, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Imperial College London and longstanding advocate for the Community Health Worker model in the UK
  • Dr Connie Junghans, Academic Clinical Fellow in Primary Care, Imperial College London and Public Health Specialist, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea/Westminster City Council

Hear more about the development and implementation of the community health worker model and lessons learned for other areas around the UK interested to develop similar services. The model has been used all across the world from low and middle-income country settings through to the USA who applied it in several regions particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic to reach communities not typically so well engaged with routine health services.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 6: The Bromley-by-Bow model

As part of the sixth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

  • Dan Hopewell, Director of Knowledge and Innovation at the Bromley by Bow Centre
  • Berenice Lamblin, Knowledge Share and Exchange Programme Manager

Hear more about how to use NHS facilities for community health and resilience, guidance on creating welfare advice and social prescribing services in primary care, and methods of engaging community members in the running of primary care.

Access the PowerPoint presentation here.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 7: Population Health Fellows

As part of the seventh webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from:

  • Solomon Lebese, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and GP Registrar
  • Sara Harford, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and Special Care Dentistry Registrar
  • Erika Andrews, HEE Population Health Fellow 2021-22 and GP
  • Orla Dunn, HEE Population Health Fellow Supervisor and Consultant in Public Health, Somerset County Council

Hear more about examples of Population Health Fellowship projects the impacts of these projects on population health outcomes, reflections on professional development opportunities the programmes have created, and what lessons we can learn from the programme to apply to how we build the capability of the broader health and care workforce to promote population health.

Access the 'Population Health Fellowship: Improving Young People’s Wellbeing in Somerset' presentation here.

Access the 'HEE Population Health Fellowship: A Fellow’s Perspective' presentation here.

Access the 'My Population Health Fellowship Experience' presentation here.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 8: Health Justice Partnerships

As part of the eighth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Professor Dame Hazel Genn as she discusses how Health Justice Partnerships between primary care and lawyers could address a key determinant of health inequalities.

Access to legal advice around social welfare is key to mental and physical health, covering matters ranging from entitlements to benefits, housing, debt management, fair treatment in work and many other factors. Health Justice Partnerships aim to reach people in need of legal advice and improve health through collaborative working between healthcare services and legal teams.

Listen to Professor Genn summarise examples of such partnerships, including a successful service in Stratford, London between 2016, as well as evidence for what benefits such partnerships can bring to patients, services and communities.

 

Access a PDF version of the resource slides here.

Access the 'International Evidence on the Impact of Health-Justice Partnerships: A Systematic Scoping Review' document here.

Access the 'Law for Health' document here.

Access the 'Health-Justice Partnerships in England: An implementation study' here.

Discover more resources on the UCL Health Justice website.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 9: Embedding Social Welfare Advice Services in Primary Care

As part of the ninth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Dr Cheryl Lowes, GP and Community Development Lead for primary care in Liverpool, Debbie Nolan, Health Lead for Citizens Advice Liverpool and Clare Mahoney, Senior Programme Manager at Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group.

Since 2014 Liverpool CCG has funded an Advice on Prescription Service in collaboration with Liverpool Citizens Advice. The programme allows all Liverpool GPs to refer patients for social welfare advice including housing, employment support, debt issues and benefits advice.

An evaluation of referrals between 2016-18 found the service led to income maximisation of £6.7 million with an average increase in household income for each patient referred of £762. 77% of patients referred reported an increase in capacity to manage their own physical and/or mental health and 23% reported an improvement to their housing security including avoiding eviction.

With rising costs of living likely to push more people into poverty and debt we will hear how programmes such as this can mitigate such harms and ensure primary care provides holistic care while tackling inequalities.

Access the slide deck here.

Access the 'How Social Welfare Legal Advice and Social Prescribing can work collaboratively in healthcare settings' report here.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 10: FairHealth

As part of the tenth webinar in the series of Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health, hear from Dr Rachel Steen and Dr Suesanne Samara from Fairhealth, a registered charity in Yorkshire and the Humber supporting health equity action and learning for health professionals.

Fairhealth officially registered as a charity in December 2020 and has grown to hosting e-learning modules, patient narratives and blogs and podcasts as well as a platform to engage students in discussions around health inequalities.

Their Trailblazer scheme supports motivated and recently qualified GPs to work in practices of greater socio-economic deprivation, supported by a monthly teaching programme.

Alongside this the charity runs a national monthly programme bringing together GPs on Trailblazer and health equity fellowships with topics ranging from trauma-informed care to rural deprivation and modern slavery. To date the charity website has logged over 1000 active learners, hosts 11 free courses and has achieved over 1000 hours of learning completed.

Building Back Primary Care & Public Health Webinar 11: New voices: an informal sharing of experiences working in new roles

The 11th webinar of the Building Back Better in Primary Care and Public Health series invited members of the SIG to join an informal catch-up to explore the new roles that many SIG members are taking up across the UK, in the territory between Primary Care clinical work and strategic population health work.

Hear from three people: A young GP, a GP Registrar and a newly appointed Consultant in Public Health.

All are pioneers in their new roles. This discussion offers numerous ideas and advice, and is useful if you are looking at a portfolio career.​

Further resources

Community Health Workers

Online learning

Online learning for GPs and GP trainees:

Trauma and dissociation

ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)

Trauma-informed YouTube list

Films

Non-fiction:

  • The Body Keeps The Score: Bessel Van de Kolk
  • Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma: Peter Levine
  • When the body says No: Gabor Mate
  • In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Gabor Mate
  • Trauma and Recovery: Judith Herman

Fiction:

  • Regeneration trilogy: Pat Barker
  • Instrumental: James Rhodes
  • Shuggie Bain: Douglas Stewart
  • A Little Life: Hanya Yanagihara​
Top