Syndemic health crises-The growing role of National Public Health Institutes in shaping a coordinated response.

Countries across the world are experiencing syndemic health crises where infectious pathogens including COVID-19 interact with epidemics of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Combined with war, environmental instability and the effects of soaring inflation, a public health crisis has emerged requiring an integrated response. Increasingly, national public health institutes (NPHIs) are at the forefront of leading this, as demonstrated at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI).

Building the evidence base for global health policy: the need to strengthen institutional networks, geographical representation and global collaboration.

National public health institutes and WHO collaborating centres, and their global networks, are a key resource to support public health system strengthening with essential public health functions and generate evidence for health policy central to national health and socioeconomic development. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare global inequities in public health capacities, made urgent the need to examine sources of global knowledge and understand how to better invest in and use public health institutes and their capacities. This analysis paper incorporates experiences and perspectives from the WHO and International Association of Public Health Associations including the ongoing pandemic and work conducted in the UK-WHO 'Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme'.

Improving the health of homeless people.

Earlier this year I was asked to speak at a Queen's Nursing Institute conference on homeless and inclusion health, to explain how Public Health England (PHE) is supporting nurses to improve the health of people experiencing homelessness.