Health Protection - Ensuring Health and Safety

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What is health protection?

Health Protection is one of the core fields of public health work. It is concerned with protecting individuals, groups and populations, through expert advice and effective collaboration to prevent and mitigate the impact of environmental hazards arising from infectious disease and chemical and radiological threats.

What are the three domains of Health Protection?

Health protection consists of three main domains: communicable disease control; emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR); and environmental public health. Communicable disease control involves prevention, investigation, control, and management of infections through local, regional, and national specialist health protection teams.

What is public health & health protection?

It is a subset of public health—the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society. This is an excellent guide for all levels of practitioners of public health and health protection.

What is health protection & why is it important?

Health protection is one of the responsibilities of Public Health England (PHE). It is a broad and versatile field requiring specialist knowledge and skills provided by a multidisciplinary team. It has been given an increasing profile in recent years following the polonium 210 incident, pandemic flu and more recently SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19 disease.

What is protected health information?

It is important to know what is Protected Health Information – and what isn´t – because you may be protecting too little information, or too much. If you protect too little information, the risk exists of HIPAA violations and data breaches; while, if you protect too much, you could be obstructing the flow of information in a healthcare environment.

What is health information & why is it important?

Health information is some of the most sensitive personal information you might process about your workers. The UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 (referred to here as data protection law) applies whenever you process information about your workers’ health.

What is a health protection profile?

This profile aims to collate Health Protection information in a single profile at a Local Authority and Regional level, and contains unique content, such as: Some indicators are brought together from different profiles (PHOF, TB, antimicrobial resistance, sexual and reproductive health and liver disease).

What Is Health Protection

1. https://www.telford.gov.uk/info/21819/health_protection_hub/6511/what_is_health_protection
2. https://academic.oup.com/book/24447/chapter/187483182
3. https://www.rcn.org.uk/clinical-topics/public-health/health-protection
4. https://publichealthscotland.scot/our-areas-of-work/health-protection/overview-of-health-protection/what-is-health-protection/
5. https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/our-work/health-protection/
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-profile-for-england-2018/chapter-7-current-and-emerging-health-protection-issues
7. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/establishing-the-national-institute-for-health-protection/

Health Protection Information

1. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/information-about-workers-health/data-protection-and-workers-health-information/
2. https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/health-protection
3. https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/information-governance-and-data-protection/
4. https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-protected-health-information/