Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords where he co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health

He 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.

His current focus in on creating health – promoting the causes of health – developing the health workforce, and  improving health globally.

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Creating health

Health is made at home, Hospitals are for repairs (Salus 2020)

Click here to watch the video of Nigel talking to the Royal College of Physicians about health creation and his 2020 book which is based on meetings with 60 UK groups creating health in families, communities, education, employment and business.

Health is made at home challenges us to set aside our normal assumptions and take off our NHS spectacles to see the world differently and take control of our health. And it calls for a new partnership between the NHS, government and the general public to build a healthy and health creating society.

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Improving health globally

Turning the World Upside Down Again – global health in a time of pandemics, climate change and political turmoil (Taylor and Francis 2022)

Nigel Crisp’s new book due to be published in March 2022 follows on from the ground breaking Turning the World Upside Down (2010). Described as “a decade before its time” it showed what richer countries could learn from poorer ones about health. It introduced the idea that we should replace top-down thinking about international development with the concept of co-development – respectful international relationships in which we all learn from each other and learn together to confront our shared future. One World Health (2016) took this further by describing how health can be improved in our inter-connected and interdependent world.

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Developing the health workforce

The health workforce will change radically over the next 20 to 30 years thanks to the combined effects of new ways of thinking about health, the need to tackle health inequity and the social determinants of health, technology, and growing demand.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health (APPG) published New Directions for the Mental Health Workforce Globally in July 2021. The APPG is conducting research on the future role of the health workforce globally and will publish a further report in summer 2022.

Nursing Now – the global campaign to raise the profile and status of nurses was  launched in 2018  and concluded at the end of May 2020 by which time 126 countries were part of the campaign. There were more than 750 national, regional and local Nursing Now groups around the world, and more than 30,000 young nurses and midwives were participating in development programmes as part of the Nightingale Challenge. The final report describes its impact and legacy – Agents of Change – the story of the Nursing Now campaign May 2022.

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Selected articles include

Presentations include