Health Policy in Britain The Politics and Organisation of the National Health Service

In this new edition the author traces the growth of government involvement in health care from the public health legislation of the nineteenth century to the creation of the NHS in 1948. He goes on to analyse the development of the NHS in its first fifty years, focusing particularly on the Thatcher goverment's internal market reforms and the Blair government's plans for the modernisation of the NHS. This leads into assessment of contemporary issues in health policy and the debate about rationing generated by the growing gap between demand for health care and the availability of resources. At the core of the book is an analysis of the politics of health care. How are decisions made and what influences their implementation? Do politicians run the NHS or are civil servants the real decision-makers? How much power do pressure groups have over policy and have managers taken over from doctors as controllers of the NHS at a local level? And is the devolution of responsibility for rationing decisions an example of politicians seeking to avoid accountability?