Recommended reading: books and articles

Books and articles which explore in depth the issues confronting health care provision
in Britain and around the world.

NHS for Sale
Myths, Lies and Deception

by Jacky Davis, John Lister and David Wrigley

Foreword by Harry Smith
Introduction by Martin McKee

'Essential reading in the battle to save the NHS before private companies bleed it dry.'  Ken Loach

'This is the most important recent book about the future of the NHS. It examines the havoc created by Andrew Lansley's costly and damaging "reforms" and George Osborne's spending cuts. It's a must read.'  Owen Jones

 In 2010 David Cameron's coalition government discarded pre-election promises about the NHS. Instead they imposed savage spending cuts and pushed through 'reforms' which put at risk the health and lives of all of us. As a result the NHS is now in crisis.

NHS for Sale challenges their myths and lies, arguing that:

  • The NHS is efficient and affordable and didn't need radical reform.
  • The private sector is not cheaper or more efficient than the public sector.
  • The government is privatising the NHS.
  • The NHS market is wasting billions of pounds while harming the service.
  • The coalition's Health and Social Care Act:

     Has not put GPs in the driving seat
    Has reduced patient choice
    Has reduced community control over healthcare priorities
    Has increased bureacracy and waste
This book sets out what needs to be done to protect the NHS against corporate greed, and enable future governments to meet the challenge of delivering high quality and affordable health care for all.

Dr Jacky Davis is a consultant radiologist in north London, co-chair of the NHS Consultants' Association, a member of the BMA UK Council and is a founder member of Keep our NHS Public.
Dr John Lister is the Information Director with London Health Emergency, a founder member of Keep Our NHS Public, a public speaker, journalist, and the author of books on the NHS;
Dr David Wrigley is a GP in Carnforth, Lancashire. He speaks for Keep Our NHS Public and is a member of the BMA UK Council and BMA General Practitioners' Committee.

 Click here for further details

 Available at a special price directly from Keep Our NHS Public



Health Policy Reform: Global Health versus Private Profit

by John Lister
Libri Press, £25
http://www.libripublishing.co.uk

Much has changed since John Lister's first book was published, but the pressure for the introduction of market-based approaches has remained undiminished.

Now, in a revised and restructured analysis, Health Policy Reform: Global Health versus Private Profit, John Lister brings his critique of health policy up-to-date. He continues to question whether the major 'reforms' which have been, and are still being, introduced are driven primarily by the health needs of the wider population or, in fact, by the financial and political concerns of governments and global institutions. The global economic recession at the end of the first decade of this century adds even more urgency to the need to understand the implications of these trends.



Europe's Health for Sale: the heavy cost of privatisation

Edited by John Lister
Libri Press, £19.95
http://www.libripublishing.co.uk

David Cameron keeps insisting that Andrew Lansley's controversial Health and Social Care Bill does not mean privatisation of health services. But this new collection of articles from a number of European countries points to the covert methods that are increasingly being used to do just that, though the development of competitive market systems.

The papers were presented at a 2009 conference of the International Association of Health Policy in Europe, hosted at Coventry University: but the issues are just as relevant and immediate today.



The NHS After 60 - For patients or profits?

by John Lister

This critical history of the National Health Service was published to mark the 60th anniversary of our most popular and universal public service in July 2008.

Author John Lister has been a prominent and outspoken health campaigner, as Information Director of London Health Emergency, for over 25 years. He argues strongly that despite so-called "reforms" that have begun to fragment and privatise sections of the NHS since 2000, there is a great deal still to defend.

Tony Benn says: "This is a very significant book, meticulously researched, and intensely readable. It warns us all about what is on the agenda - the steady privatisation of the National Health Service.
"Everyone should read this book, and we must get together to ensure that the privatisation it warns of does not happen."

Dr Julian Tudor Hart says: "John Lister has written a book which everyone interested or active in health care needs to read. He has unrivalled experience of campaigning to defend the NHS as a public service economy, originally lifted out of the marketplace, but ever since 1979, steadily opened by governments toward unrestrained pursuit of profit by any company that can find a promising business opportunity.
"There should be a world of difference between the NHS economy serving public need, and the business economy serving private greed. This book will help you to re-establish that difference."

The book can be ordered online from Libri Publishing
ISBN 978 1 904750 30 7

Health Policy in Europe: Contemporary dilemmas and challenges

Edited by Alexis Benos, Hans Ulrich Deppe and John Lister

A roundup of health policies across Europe.

This book is an effort to describe and critically analyse the recent experience of various European countries and discuss the dilemmas and challenges that confront health policy and policy-makers in this period of time and geopolitical setting, providing concrete evidence from various countries.

Specific chapters address issues in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, and Palestine, with an additional comparative study of the situation in the market- dominated health care system in the United States.

It is produced as an aftermath of the productive exchanges during the XIV Conference of the International Association of Health Policy in Europe (IAHPE), held in Thessaloniki in May 2005, with papers subsequently edited through a peer review process.

Published by the International Association of Health Policy Europe (IAHPE)

Special Offer: a limited number of copies are available directly from LHE at the special price of £10, saving £5 off the usual price. To secure your copy, send a cheque with your name and address to: BCM London Health Emergency, London WC1N 3XX.


Health Policy Reform: Driving the Wrong Way?

LHE supported John Lister in his five-year doctoral study of health care reforms around the world, which has been published as a 350-page book Health Policy Reform: Driving the Wrong Way?. This critical guide to the global 'health reform' industry offers a readable and accessible understanding of health policies around the world, with a unique analysis covering not only the wealthiest countries of Europe, north America and Australasia, but also the poorer developing and so-called "middle income" countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Driving the Wrong Way? is published by Libri Publishing.



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