About Health Protection

Health Protection relates to the control of communicable diseases, and management of non-infectious environmental hazards. Much of this work is carried out by regional Health Protection Teams, with support and guidance from specialist national services. There is a strong reactive focus, with provision of a 24-hour acute response service, but also longer term, strategic work with regional partners and national networks.

Basic training

Training generally starts with a minimum 4-month FTE placement in the East of England Health Protection Team (HPT), sometime during the ST2 year.

During this time, you will work on the acute response desk, developing skills and experience needed for on-call work. You will also gain exposure to topic areas such as surveillance, Emergency Planning, outbreak management, and Health Care Associated Infection/Anti-Microbial Resistance.

Senior training

Additional health protection placements are available to all registrars during the final phase of training. These include senior placements with the HPT, as well as opportunities to work with regional and national specialist teams in infections, surveillance, microbiology and non-infectious environmental hazards.

Registrars who plan a career in Health Protection will need to complete a minimum of 6 months in Health Protection placements.

Further detail is described in the Health Protection policy below.