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Funding for environmental and public health services must be ring-fenced to protect public health and prevent further disease outbreaks, Professor Hugh Pennington will today tell a conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).
Speaking at the CIEH practitioners' conference in Nottingham Professor Hugh Pennington will speak of the vital role environmental health plays in protecting public health.
Professor Pennington said:
"Local authority environmental health teams work hard to prevent food safety problems. However we must ensure that the lessons from tragic incidents are learnt well and the necessary changes put in place to avoid recurrences.
"It is clear that high levels of public protection require adequately resourced environmental health services and this will become an increasing challenge as public sector budget cuts bite. We must make sure that local authorities can maintain adequate levels of well qualified and competent staff."
The CIEH is urging councils to remember their responsibility to maintain and improve the health of the communities they serve.
CIEH Principal Policy Officer Jenny Morris added:
"If you cut back on environmental health services it not only decreases the levels of public protection, but it also reduces the amount of support and advice available to businesses. Such support is generally welcomed, especially by smaller businesses and is recognised as contributing to improved performance and business success."
The comments follow a nationwide survey of local government showing environmental health and consumer protection as councils' lowest priorities – despite a recent rise in the number of serious infectious disease outbreaks.
Hugh Pennington is emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, and was chair of the Pennington Group enquiry into the Scottish E.coli outbreak of 1996 and as Chairman of the Public Inquiry into the 2005 outbreak of E.coli 0157 in South Wales.
Professor Pennington will give the key note address at the CIEH conference and will discuss lessons learned from the 2005 outbreak.
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