The NHS After 60: For Patients or Profits? (Health & Medicine) - Softcover

Lister, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904750303 ISBN 13: 9781904750307

Publisher: Middlesex University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Taking a fresh look at the origins and evolution of the National Health Service (NHS)--the four single-payer publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom--this argues that the "reforms" have begun to transform the system into a European-style social health insurance fund, with purchasing services from a variety of private- and public-sector providers. The examination also places the NHS in an international context and discusses the recent tendencies of Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish governments to follow alternative lines of policy. The books concludes with a look at the alternatives for the future development of the NHS and by asking such question as Will ministers roll the wheel of history further back towards a more radical market system? Or will they move forward to a public service based on greater accountability and responsiveness to the needs and wishes of local people and those with greatest health needs?

About this title

Review:

"This is a very significant book, meticulously researched, and intensely readable."
-- Tony Benn

"John Lister has written a book which everyone interested or active in health care needs to read." -- Julian Tudor Hart

From the Back Cover:

Sixty years ago, in 1948, Aneurin Bevan's bold nationalisation of private, voluntary and municipal hospitals swept away a failed market system, and created the most popular of all the public services, the NHS. New Labour reforms are reversing this historic modernisation, and spending more money to create an artificial `market' in health care which could never exist without government subsidy.

In The NHS After 60, John Lister takes a fresh look at the origins and evolution of the NHS, emphasising the `reforms' which, in its sixth decade, have begun to transform the NHS into a European-style social health insurance fund, purchasing services from a variety of private- and public-sector providers.

Lister also examines the NHS in an international context and discusses recent tendencies of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments to follow alternative lines of policy. The conclusion looks at the alternatives for the future development of the NHS. Will ministers roll the wheel of history further back towards a more radical market system? Or will they move forward to a public service based on greater accountability and responsiveness to the needs and wishes of local people and those with greatest health needs?

About this edition

• Publisher: Middlesex University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1904750303
• ISBN 13: 9781904750307
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350