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January’s green paper must win back the support of public health activists

The rumour mill has been working overtime in recent weeks as news has filtered out of the Department of Health of yet more delays to the publication of the promised green paper on public health.

An early draft was reported to share the disease-focus of the previous government’s Health of the Nation strategy.

It is now hinted that the revised document will be released in mid-January, in time to coincide with health minister Frank Dobson’s speech at the Public Health Alliance conference in Sheffield, sponsored by healthmatters (see page 22 of this issue).

Geof Rayner, chair of the conference orgianising group, has suggested to ministers that they use the occasion to start the consultation process rolling.

There is a great deal riding on the green paper. Ministers have to work hard to redeem themselves with the public health movement in the wake of the Formula One debacle and the failure to make convincing moves to reduce income inequality.

While the government’s commitment in principle to improving the public health won many supporters in the early summer, many public health activists are now growing increasingly restive in the absence of firm policies.

But, given the sensitivity of the Blair regime to adverse press comment, ministers will be sure to want to avoid being labelled with a ‘Nanny state’ tag, one of the few weapons remaining in the opposition’s armoury — and one which Tory backbenchers had no hesitation in applying to their own front bench health team during Virginia Bottomley’s tenure as health secretary.