Member blog: Dr Victor Joseph

My health profession journey started following my training in Curative and Preventive Medicine more than 36 years ago, grounded in the principles of primary health care. This meant that I was introduced to public health early in my career. During this time, I was also privileged enough to become a tutor and supported future health professionals to follow in my footsteps. This journey led me to undertake further training at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on teaching primary health care, which I find relevant to this day in my role as Education Supervisor and Training Programme Director, and it is rewarding to see public health registrars grow in confidence, skill, and practice. 

After completing a Masters of Public Health at the University of Liverpool, and the Faculty of Public Health’s (FPH) Diploma in Epidemiology, I continued on to complete the public health specialist training programme and became a Consultant in Public Health (CPH) in 2005. I have been a CPH in Doncaster ever since. 

This role has been rewarding and fulfilling, and I feel I am making a real difference in the lives of the people of Doncaster. During this time, I have led on health protection and chaired the local Health Protection Assurance Group since public health moved to local government.  

I also lead the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Community of Interest in Yorkshire and the Humber with a vision of creating an inclusive workforce that represents our communities to achieve equity in health outcomes. 

Being an ADPH member means a lot to me because I am kept informed of strategic policy updates on what’s happening nationally. I have also benefited from the ADPH mentoring programme, which pairs Associate Members with a DPH. Knowing who to reach out to for help or information is invaluable. 

In addition to being a member of ADPH, I have served six years as the FPH Advisor for Yorkshire and the Humber and chair its Africa Special Interest Group, building a memorandum of understanding for public health training in South Africa, and establishing partnerships on anti-microbial stewards in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya. I was honoured to receive the prize for service to FPH two years ago and have recently been part of a team championing public health at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on the importance of public health and primary health care for Global Health. My blog for FPH on building the public health workforce is a good reminder that we are trained/training to solve public problems. 

Becoming a CPH was one of my greatest ambitions and achievements to date, and I am especially proud of my contributions – and those of my colleagues – in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the years, I have also led on initiatives to reduce health inequalities, for example, improving the health of people from ethnic minority backgrounds and I feel I am practising public health at local, national, and global levels, and make a real difference every day.