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With a foreword by Tony Benn.
Drawing on clinical experience dating from the birth of the NHS in 1948, Julian Tudor Hart, a politically active GP in a Welsh coal mining community, charts the progress of the NHS from its 19th century origins in workers' mutual aid societies, to its current forced return to the market. His starting point is a detailed analysis of how clinical decisions are made. He explores the changing social relationships in the NHS as a gift economy, how these may be affected by reducing care to commodity status, and the new directions they might take if the NHS resumed progress independently from the market.
This edition of this bestselling book has been entirely rewritten with two new chapters, and includes new material on resistance to that world-wide process. The essential principle in the book is that patients need to develop as active citizens and co-producers of health gain in a humanising society and the author's aim is to promote it wherever people recognise that pursuit of profit may be a brake on rational progress.
"This book is a masterpiece -- a unique combination of fascinating history, top-notch epidemiological science, sharp political analysis, and clinical insight. Scholar and practitioner, both, Julian Tudor Hart's understanding of how we can best pursue health in our communities is second to none." Donald M. Berwick, MD
"This is a must-read for all who are interested in healthcare, and who are concerned to protect the fundamental values on which our healthcare system is based at the same time as maximising the potential of new developments." Professor Dame June Clark, ex-President of the Royal College of Nursing, and member of the Wales Assembly Government Bevan Commission on the future of the NHS in Wales
"At a time when governments across the world seem ever more determined to expose health services to commercialisation and market forces, Julian Tudor Hart's analysis, insight and wisdom have never been more needed." Dr Iona Heath, President, Royal College of General Practitioners