#164 Creating the Causes of Health with Lord Nigel Crisp

13th Sep 2022

My guest today used to run the NHS. Lord Nigel Crisp was Chief Executive of the English NHS and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health from 2000-2006.

He now works and writes mainly on global health with a focus on Africa. Lord Crisp is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Medicine. He was formerly a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and Regent’s Lecturer at Berkeley.

His current focus is on creating health and promoting the causes of health. Having worked in the NHS for over 20 years, the last 10 have been spent in Africa and India which has led him to think differently about health and well-being and health systems and public services more generally. Nigel believes organisations must all play their part in building a society and environment where communities and individuals can thrive and flourish. This goes far beyond the reach of the NHS and government and everyone has a role to play.

We have a fascinating conversation about:

• Developing the health workforce
• Why a salutogenic approach to health is key
• What we can learn from developing nations with far less budget
• The ideas of how interconnected and interdependent we are in health globally, just as we are in every other area of our lives.

This is a concept really brought to life with the most recent pandemic, but something that Lord Nigel has been writing and talking about for years.

His latest book, Turning the World Upside Down Again – global health in a time of pandemics, climate change and political turmoil is a fascinating read and one I hope many policymakers will read and put into action.