Public health is the organised response by society to protect and promote health, and to prevent illness, injury and disability. The starting point for identifying public health issues, problems and priorities, and for designing and implementing interventions, is the population as a whole, or population subgroups. 3 The boundary between public health and clinical practice came up repeatedly as an issue in discussions about the scope of public health, with particular debate about whether preventive services delivered on a one-to-one basis to individuals should be considered in scope. Many agreed that immunisation was in scope because it is an activity that is 'organised' at a population level with benefits for both populations and individuals. More contentious, however, was the possible inclusion of interventions that are designed to prevent and manage chronic diseases, and that are delivered to individuals in primary care settings.