by W. J. M. Mackenzie (1979)
Professor Mackenzie's book is an important contribution, possibly unique to the general debate, for despite the author's diffidence in describing it as 'primarily a conceptual and analytical study rather than a practical one', by discussing certain key questions from the point of view of a political scientist, he illuminates as never before the contradictions and mythologies of an institution which has a special niche in British social history and in which there is an almost inordinate pride among the population at large.
Dina Balabanova, Martin McKee and Anne Mills
Reviews the progress in five countries towards the goals set out in `Good health and low cost' - London : Rockefeller Foundation, 1985 ; and what happened to others viewed as successes 25 years ago -- [foreword, ix].
Sheila Leatherman, Kim Sutherland
A collection of charts arranged in six quality domains (effectiveness, access, capacity, safety, patient-centredness, disparities) that aims to provide an accessible overview of the quality of healthcare in the UK.
Alan I. Marcus and Hamilton Cravens
"How can we have received so many benefits while still being as worried as ever about our health and the health care system established to ensure and extend those benefits? The historical perspective provided by the essays in this volume helps answer this question by identifying two points of significant change in health care policy. Beginning in the 1950s there emerged a subtle yet critical reconceptualization as the individual rather than the group came to figure prominently as the central policy-making unit. Then in the late 1960s, a palpable sense of limits rendered the individualism of the previous decade into a Malthusian formulation: the greater the access or benefits that any one person received, the less access and fewer benefits others could get. Besides tracing these patterns in health care development, the essays also show how traditional notions of expertise have been affected by the changes."--BOOK JACKET.
Charles E. Rosenberg
Historian of medicine Rosenberg presents an analysis of the current tensions in American medicine. Situating these tensions within their historical and social contexts, Rosenberg investigates the fundamental characteristics of medicine: how we think about disease, how the medical profession thinks about itself and its moral and intellectual responsibilities, and what prospective patients--all of us--expect from medicine and the medical profession. He explores the nature and definition of disease and how ideas of disease causation reflect social values and cultural negotiations. His analyses of alternative medicine and bioethics consider the historically specific ways in which we define and seek to control what is appropriately medical. At a time when clinical care and biomedical research generate as much angst as they offer cures, this volume provides valuable insight into how the practice of medicine has evolved, where it is going, and how lessons from history can improve its prognosis.--From publisher description.