Dr Philip Crowley is the National Director of Strategy and Research at the Health Service Executive
or HSE in Ireland. Originally a ‘public health trained’ general practitioner, he is also adjunct associate
professor at the School of Health Sciences in University College Dublin, and adjunct faculty at the
Institute of Leadership in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. His career path has been
genuinely remarkable, taking him from Nicaragua to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Dublin’s North Inner
City, by way of specialist training, multiple diplomas (including most recently in lifestyle medicine
and positive psychology), and an extraordinarily broad range of public health medicine, general
practice, journalism, advocacy and NCHD and other leadership roles.
In this podcast, Philip pays tribute to his parents, and his wife, Emma, and to the hugely ‘therapeutic
nature’ of West Cork, and he recounts how he - almost serendipitously - ‘wandered through a series of
jobs’ from leadership of Ireland’s NCHDs in the turbulent mid-1980’s to Deputy Chief Medical
Officer, all the while recognizing that communities of patients and professionals are ‘great assets’ and
that, while significant progress is constantly being achieved (for instance, in Irish cancer and
cardiovascular care), there will always be further advances to be made. Dr Crowley also touches on
many initiatives of historic and practical importance with which he has been closely involved, like the
Madden Report, the National Office of Clinical Audit, the national public health response to the
recent pandemic, the clinical services for the homeless and addicted at Merchants Quay Ireland, the
reconfiguration of the emergency service in Roscommon and the work of Irish Aid in Africa. And,
based on his own truly exceptional exercise regime and cultural calendar, Philip offers listeners one
(distinctly challenging but apparently effective) approach to staving off boredom, burnout and
premature ageing: “Let all keep fit!”
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