The New Politics of the NHS has become
established over 30 years as the key overview of the
NHS, its processes and paths of influence. The
seventh edition remains a clear, easy-to-read guide to
often complex debates. It encompasses both the
background of the evolution of the NHS since its
foundation, and a completely up-to-date picture of its
present and future in a more pluralistic – and possibly
more financially austere – era in which deference to
medical expertise is eroding and information on health
and care is far more widely available. In includes
entirely new material on events since the turn of the
millennium, the Blair administration, the 2010 General
Election, the impact of the Coalition Government and
strategies for coping with a new, much harsher economic
environment. Assuming no prior knowledge of NHS
politics and systems, The New Politics of the
NHS focuses on management, structure,
centralisation, funding, economic performance,
challenges, current party political debates, interest
groups and rationing, and also on the NHS's
institutional and cultural continuity as a tax-funded
service providing comprehensive, universal healthcare
free at the point of delivery. It is a vital update
for all healthcare professionals, NHS managers, policy
makers and shapers, and those in special interest groups
including patient advocacy organisations. It is
essential reading for anyone interested in understanding
current controversies. Edition-by-edition, the
perspective shaping the analysis has shifted somewhat as
new questions have come to the surface. However, the
book remains structured around themes and preoccupations
that have organised the text from the beginning and
continue to do so. It is shaped, above all, by the
assumption that the NHS (and the wider health care
policy arena) can be seen as a laboratory for a whole
range of social, institutional and organisational
experiments with implications for other areas of policy
and perhaps other countries as well. Rudolf
Klein, in the Preface
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