Chairman, Indian Academy of Public Health and Principal, KPC Medical College, Kolkata, India.
Indian J Public Health. 2010 Jul-Sep;54(3):137-44. doi: 10.4103/0019-557X.75736.
The Bhore committee observed that "if nation's health is to be built, the health program should be developed on the foundation of preventive health work and that such activities should proceed side by side with the treatment of patients." The committee defined two categories of workforce: one for the personal care and the other for the public health namely, public health nurses and sanitary inspectors for public health and nurse, midwife, and pharmacist for personal care. Recommendations of successive health committees lead to amalgamation of personal care services and public health services. Single focus programs and amalgamation of different cadre of Grassroots staff lead to dilution of public health services and more focused on different program-based personal care services. To carry out public health services, we need a sufficiently knowledgeable, well-skilled and competent mid-level supervisory public health workforce who can support and strengthen the performance of the existing multipurpose workers. Increased understanding of the influence of different determinants on health and well-being and also scientific progress to combat the environmental and biological effects on health has widened the gap between the actual need of human resources and expanding public health services needs. Keeping in view of the above and meet the challenges, a 3-year course of Bachelor in Public Health is conceived by the Indian Academy of Public Health. Professional responsibilities expected from this new cadre of workforce are also discussed in this article.
“如果要建设国家的健康，健康计划应该建立在预防保健工作的基础上，此类活动应与患者治疗同时进行。”委员会定义了两类劳动力：一类是个人护理，另一类是公共卫生，即公共卫生护士和卫生督察员从事公共卫生工作，护士、助产士和药剂师从事个人护理工作。历届卫生委员会的建议导致个人护理服务和公共卫生服务的合并。单一重点项目和基层工作人员不同干部的合并导致公共卫生服务的淡化，更多地侧重于基于不同项目的个人护理服务。要开展公共卫生服务，我们需要一支有足够知识、技能和能力的中级监督公共卫生劳动力，以支持和加强现有多用途工作人员的工作。人们对不同决定因素对健康和幸福的影响的认识不断加深，以及为应对环境和生物因素对健康的影响而取得的科学进步，扩大了人力资源的实际需求与不断扩大的公共卫生服务需求之间的差距。鉴于上述情况和挑战，印度公共卫生学院设想开设为期 3 年的公共卫生学士课程。本文还讨论了这一新劳动力群体的预期专业职责。
