The National Health Service was established at a time when health care in the United Kingdom was desperately in need of improvement. This book looks at the political decisions surrounding its foundation and the purpose which it was intended to serve. Despite many changes of political ethossince its foundation on 5 July 1948, every government has declared its intention to maintain and improve the National Health Service. Nevertheless, the National Health Service has faced some almost cyclical problems, while apparently new ideas (for example, the introduction of a chief executive) infact have a long ancestry, and there is a drift towards a seemingly endless pattern of reorganization.   Charles Webster's narrative concentrates on policy issues of major import to the patient and consumer including funding, resources, and health issues, as well as recognizing the achievements and limitations of this major national institution. In addition to concentrating on the last fifty years, helooks ahead to the future of the NHS, suggesting that a Royal Commission be set up to make a thorough investigation of the organization and structure of the service, and to suggest a way forward into the twenty-first century.

The National Health Service: A Political History

Medical Books

Webster, Charles

Administration & Medicine Economics

Oxford Univ. Pr.

The foundation of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948 was a momentous development in the history of the United Kingdom. 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 framework for assessing its future as we enter the new millennium.

National Health Service: A Political History

History

Europe

Oxford University Press

Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541), better known as Paracelsus, was a physician, natural magician, radical activist of the early Reformation, and commentator on the social and religious issues of his day. This elegantly written book is the defining account of the man known as “Paracelsus the Great.”
Drawing on the whole range of relevant manuscript and printed sources, Charles Webster considers Paracelsus’s life and works, explores his advocacy for total reform of the clerical, legal, and medical professions, and describes his precise expectations for the Christian church of the future, focusing on his affinity with the spiritualist Anabaptists. The author concludes with the apocalyptic speculations of Paracelsus, who vividly portrayed the sense of endtime crisis that constituted one of the defining characteristics of his era.

Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Yale University Press

This book considers the historical development of health care from 1500 to the present day. The authors adopt a broad interdisciplinary framework to draw on the most recent research in the fields of medical and social history. While focusing primarily on the United Kingdom, they also trace the impact of European systems of health care on the colonial territories in the past, and its echoes in the relationship between the advanced economies and the developing world today. The central premise of the book is that the strengths and limitations of health care systems around the world can only be understood in the light of past practices and structures. For instance, only by reference to the historical record is it possible to understand the reasons for the dominance of acute hospital specialities, the Cinderella status of chronic care, the prejudice against alternative medicine, the difficulties experienced in regulating the medical profession, or in determining the sphere of responsibility exercized by nurses. Caring for Health: History and Diversity explores the growth of state involvement in health care, culminating with the welfare state model in the twentieth century. The serious dilemmas confronting attempts to modernize health care are explored with particular reference to the UK National Health Service. Other important themes include: the shifting boundaries between formal and lay care, with particular attention to the role of women as health-care providers; the emergence of specialized health-care occupations and their extending aspirations to professionalization; and the changing definitions of public health and community care. It offers a comparative analysis of current methods of delivering and financing health care in the developed and developing world, and asks whether economic integration is leading inexorably towards a global health-care system.

Caring for Health: History and Diversity

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Open University Press

An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing

This book combines the skills of a social historian, a sociologist and a graduate nurse in rethinking the history of modern nursing in the light of the latest scholarship. This book should be of interest to students in nursing, social administration, medical sociology and the history of nursing.

Dingwall, Robert

Rafferty, Anne Marie

Science & Math

Routledge

Combining the skills of a social historian, a sociologist and a graduate nurse, this book traces the history of nursing from 1800 and speculates on the future of nursing in the year 2000.

Historical Study & Educational Resources

New copy. Fast shipping. Will be shipped from US.

From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science

History & Philosophy

Dover Publications

This study is concerned with the movement for the reform of science and medicine and with wider schemes for social reconstruction during the Puritan Revolution. It underlines the importance of the apocalyptic and millenarian traditions. The book describes in detail the advancement of new philosophies, also plans to reform education, health care and the economy. In this first reissue of an influential book originally published in 1975, the author provides an entirely new introduction containing a review of the large body of recent research relating to this topical and important subject.

The great instauration: Science, medicine, and reform, 1626-1660

Gerald Duckworth Co Ltd

This study is concerned with the movement for the reform of science and medicine and with wider schemes for social reconstruction during the Puritan Revolution. It underlines the importance of the apocalyptic and millenarian traditions. The book describes in detail the advancement of new philosophies, also plans to reform education, health care and the economy. In this first reissue of an influential book originally published in 1975, the author provides an entirely new introduction containing a review of the large body of recent research relating to this topical and important subject. Contents: The apocalyptic and millenarianism in European Protestantism - Social reform during the British Puritan Revolution - Baconianism and the new philosophies - The Hartlib circle as a national and international reform movement.

The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626-1660 (Studies in the History of Medicine,)

Peter Lang Publishing

The great instauration: Science, medicine and reform, 1626-1660

Professionals & Academics

Holmes & Meier Publishers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Webster, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Webster, Charles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Webster, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The National Health Service: A Political History

National Health Service: A Political History

Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time

Caring for Health: History and Diversity

An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing

An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing

From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science

The great instauration: Science, medicine, and reform, 1626-1660

The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626-1660 (Studies in the History of Medicine,)

The great instauration: Science, medicine and reform, 1626-1660