Sewage systems, clean water, refuse collection, the clearance of slums and the subsequent provision of social housing (with an inside toilet) have perhaps done more to improve the health of people living in poverty in Britain than the various healthcare services that, since 1947, we have called the NHS. 

Yet the NHS has become embedded in the British psyche, so much so that we define ourselves by reference to it.  But this is not the case for the public health system.  There are confusing elements to it, such as the amorphous nature of what falls under the ‘public health' umbrella and the myriad of organisations responsible for progressing different elements of it. Perhaps due to this confusion, or perhaps because of poor national leadership of late, Government has been able to reorganise the public health system with little public resistance.  Most recently, the demise of Public Health England was announced whilst we were still in the grip of the Covid pandemic.