Allyson Pollock

Allyson Pollock is a consultant in public health medicine and was the Director of the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University. She is an academic who is known for her research into, and opposition to, part privatisation of the UK National Health Service (NHS) via the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and other mechanisms.

Education Pollock gained a BSc in physiology at the University of Dundee in Scotland then became a medical graduate (MB ChB) of the same university. She became a consultant in public health medicine in 1991.

Career Pollock was head of the Public Health Policy Unit at University College London and director of research and development at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In January 2017, she became the Director of the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University.

Work on PFI Allyson Pollock has provided evidence to the British Parliament and the Welsh National Assembly Following this she has spent more than a decade researching the risks involved. In 2014 she said "rugby union in schools must distinguish itself from the very brutal game practiced by the professionals." She criticised poor monitoring of injuries sustained during games played by school children. She cited research from Ireland which found that in children of secondary school age the rate of injury in rugby was three times higher than other sports. In the course of a season, children have a 20% chance of concussion or bone fracture and one in seven parents have considered withdrawing their child from the games. This group set out details of the risks involved in the letter addressed to ministers, chief medical officers and children's commissioners in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. World Rugby, the sport's governing body, responded by releasing the results of a survey that stated 92% of parents of children aged between seven and 18-years-old believed that the benefits of children playing sport outweighs the risks.

Publications (selection)

In the popular press The Guardian

The Herald

The Real News Network