Public health concerns to be addressed through new medical society

Founding member Dr Ger McDarby said they had raised the issue of the need for the country to be prepared for a pandemic but saw little or nothing done to address those concerns. Photo: Ray Ryan

A new society is set to be launched to raise awareness about public health concerns.

The Irish Society of Specialists in Public Health Medicine, set to be launched on Thursday, will act as an advocacy platform for the country’s 60 full-and-part-time specialists in public health medicine (SPHMs).

Founding member Dr Ger McDarby said to achieve a healthier health service, the whole area of public health needs not only to be better funded but also to be listened to.

She and her colleagues see it as a much-needed platform to air not only any concerns they may have about public health, but also as a forum to inform the general public about public health.

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Dr McDarby said both she and her colleagues have been trying to get more involved in health promotion for decades but haven’t been able to do so due to the heavy constraints on their time.

She said they had raised the issue of the need for the country to be prepared for a pandemic but saw little or nothing done to address those concerns.

One of the aims of the society is to ensure that when they raise issues like pandemic preparedness they are not just listened to but what they say is acted upon. And if it isn’t, they plan to use their society as a platform to highlight such issues.

“Before Covid-19 arrived, nobody really acted on what we were saying,” Dr McDarby said.

“There was no traction to even get that debate going.

“Nobody wanted to hear about it.

“I know that when I was in the Department of Health, it was something that they were certainly aware of. It was on their radar.

“They knew that we were underprepared and they were trying to do something about it.

“But there's always competing priorities and the future disaster is less of a priority than the current disaster.

“And I mean, if you look at the health system, it has been one crisis after another over the years.” The ISSPHM interim secretary and WHO consultant will be one of the speakers at Thursday's launch, discussing “better pandemic control now and into the future”.

Other speakers will include IMO President Ina Kelly, who will talk about how the society will “complement and leverage existing mechanisms to strengthen public health medicine in Ireland”.