"I get to make an immediate and positive impact on people's lives" - Working in Border Health

Anjali Pai is a Consultant in Health Protection in the South East and works closely with key regional airports and sea ports as the regional Border Health Lead. She tells us more about the sort of work she does, and how she got into the role.

Tell us a bit more about the work you do in Health Protection.

Health Protection is about protecting the health of the public – whether that be individuals, families, communities or populations – from infectious diseases like TB, measles, whooping cough, E.coli and hepatitis to name a few. So when we are notified of an infection, our role is to give advice on preventing transmission of the disease and this can be by providing advice on isolation, contact tracing, sending appropriate communications to anyone who might be affected, and also doing proactive work. We also advise on preventing the health effects of exposure to non-infectious environmental hazards (NIEHs), like chemicals (like lead) in the environment, extreme temperatures, and by-products of fires or explosions.

What does a typical day as a Health Protection Consultant look like for you?

I know it gets said a lot, but honestly, there is no typical day! One day, I might be overseeing our acute response team and advising on cases with our lovely practitioners, and the next day I might be working on local or national projects, liaising with several of our stakeholders, teaching, or chairing an incident management meeting. There's a lot of variety in this job!

When I'm working with our acute response team, we're assessing new cases or enquiries about infectious diseases or NIEHs. These might be notified by GPs, hospital clinicians, microbiologists, schools, universities, care homes, prisons, airports, sea ports or one of our other partners. The team triages and manages the case according to local processes and national guidance. Not all cases notified to us can be managed by the acute response team, so these become longer-term where more input is needed and a consistent approach is helpful.

I also do a lot of proactive work with partners in our local area, and strategic work on my topic lead areas of Border Health and Safeguarding, including local and national projects.

With your work in Border Health, how do you address looking at potential infectious diseases coming in from across the world?

The cases and enquiries we get about infectious diseases and NIEHs relate to people residing in England. And when we say 'residing', this can mean someone who lives in England permanently, is visiting temporarily, or someone with refugee/asylum status. The public health agencies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do this as well.

As a Border Health Lead, I work with colleagues locally, regionally and nationally to ensure that those visiting the country or returning after travelling elsewhere are protected from health threats they may be exposed to during their journeys or at ports of entry - including airports, docks and railways. This includes things like strengthening our Standard Operating Procedures and port health plans, exercising our plans and making changes based on feedback, ensuring guidance is updated and based on up-to-date evidence, engaging with port health officers and operational port colleagues, visiting ports, and ensuring good mutual communications.

What's the best bit about your role?

I get a thrill from the unpredictability of each day. I find it extremely rewarding to have made an immediate and positive impact on the health and lives of people. I get to work on raising awareness of infectious diseases and NIEHs and give advice on preventing transmission so our communities know how they can stay safe and well, not only protecting their own health but also those around them. It's a fantastically varied role combining reactive and strategic elements and I get to work across a diverse range of topics with varied stakeholders. And to top it all off, I work with a fabulous set of work colleagues that make it even more worthwhile!