National Health Service: A Political History

National Health Service: A Political History

by Charles Webster (Author)

Synopsis

The foundation of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948 was a momentous development in the history of the United Kingdom. Issues of health care touch the lives of everyone, and the NHS has come to be regarded as the cornerstone of the welfare state and as a model for state-organised health care systems elsewhere. Yet throughout its history, the Service has existed in an atmosphere of crisis. Charles Webster's political history is an entirely new and original examination of the NHS from its inception through to its management under the first term of the current Labour government, providing the necessary framewrork for assessing its future as we enter the new millennium.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 300
Edition: 2
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 09 May 2002

ISBN 10: 019925110X
ISBN 13: 9780199251100

Media Reviews
A vibrant and highly readable account. Webster is probably the most knowledgeable writer about the NHS, and this results in the most comprehensive single volume history of the service available: everyone - even 'experts' - will learn something from it ... It is very much a 'Heineken history', refreshing the parts other histories do not reach. It is an incisive, committed, and judgemental account ... an excellent history. Social History of Medicine Written with compelling cogency and journalistic flair the book reads like a detective story, providing clues to understanding the New Labour legacy on health policy. This book is a superb guide to understanding the key pressures and logic which drive health policy under Labour. For health service professionals in any doubt that the NHS is relentlessly entwined with the political processes of government, this book firmly and patiently dissects and comments on each aspect of health service life. Nursing Standard Webster's damning analysis is strong meat ... The authority leant by his intimate acquaintance with more than 50 years of health policy-making means his gloomy view cannot easily be dismissed. Peter Davies, Health Service Journal