It was during lockdown that Anuj Patel MCOptom decided to venture into public health – and he hasn’t looked back. “I was looking for a new challenge or something a bit different from day-to-day life in the clinic,” he says. 

Prevention is key to Anuj’s role as Strategic Lead of Health Protection at Leicestershire County Council. “It’s a lot more than stopping people from getting diseases,” he explains. “We look at wider determinants, so how do people lead healthy lifestyles? And the social parts of that: how do you stop them from feeling isolated?”

This, he adds, is quite different from optometry where the focus is on treating an individual’s symptoms. “With public health, you’re looking after the wider public. You have to take a much more strategic viewpoint.”

Protecting the health of the population involves working with a large network of professionals, including teams within the county council, as well as the local integrated care board (ICB), the UK Health Security Agency and the NHS. 

No two days are the same for Anuj. “Working as an optometrist you’re talking to 20 to 25 patients a day, whereas there are some days in local authority where you just speak to people within your team because there’s so much work to do individually,” he says. “There are other days when you have meetings with 30 to 40 people from different agencies. It’s much more varied.”