Private complaints and public health: Richard Titmuss on the National Health Service

by Ann Oakley (Editor), Jonathan Barker (Editor)

Overview

Richard Titmuss was one of the 20th century's foremost social policy theorists. This accessible Reader is the first compendium of his work on public health, health promotion and health inequalities. Most of Titmuss's work has been out of print for many years. This volume, like its predecessor, Welfare and wellbeing (The Policy Press, 2001), is important in bringing the work of this highly influential thinker to the attention of a new generation of social policy students and policy makers. It also enhances current debates about how complex societies can best provide for the health of all their citizens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781861345608
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2004
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.77(w) x 9.45(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Ann Oakley is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the UCL Social Research Institute. Jonathan Barker directed the Age Concern Research Unit from 1979 to 1986, co-founded the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College and now directs Far-sight Research.

Table of Contents

	Sources of extracts	v
	Notes on editors and contributors	vii
	Introduction	1
	Prologue: The experience of being a patient	13
Part 1	Social medicine and social inequality	19
1	Infant mortality	27
2	The social disease of juvenile rheumatism	33
3	Health and social change: the example of rheumatic heart disease	43
4	War and disease	55
Part 2	The National Health Service	59
1	Towards a national hospital service	65
2	The policy background	73
3	The structure of the NHS in England	85
4	The NHS and general practice	93
5	The ethics and economics of medical care	103
Part 3	The sociology of health care	115
1	Medical behaviour, science and the NHS	123
2	The hospital and its patients	133
3	'Therapeutic' drugs	143
4	Planning for ageing	151
Part 4	Health, values and social policy	161
1	Choice and the welfare state	167
2	The gift of blood	175
3	Medical ethics and social change in developing societies	183
4	Health and the welfare state	191
	Epilogue: Richard Titmuss's contribution to the sociology of health and illness	201
	General bibliography	209
	Bibliography of work by Richard Titmuss	225
	Richard Titmuss: further reading	231
	Index	233

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"It is important that students have access to the original writing of the 'greats' in social policy. This book, combining Titmuss's essays with contemporary commentaries by eminent academics, is an excellent example of how best to do this." Martin Powell, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath

Editorial Reviews

"With the NHS undergoing the most fundamental change in its 56 year history, this book is a timely reminder of important policy dilemmas that we ignore at our peril. This collection of Titmuss's writings brings together remarkably prescient commentaries on aspects of health, health care, and the NHS." British Medical Journal

"... extremely well put together. The contributor commentaries provide a contemporary perspective and the extensive cross-referencing helps the reader to locate specific information. In consequence, the book is both thoughtful and thought provoking." Journal of Social Policy

"The selection of Titmuss's writings in the book under review demonstrate the range, scope and depth of his work on the organization and delivery of health care, and the humane spirit in which he writes. ... They show his ability to identify issues which still have much resonance and relevance today: notably inequalities in health." Health Economics, Policy and Law "Those who plan more 'modernisation' would do well to read and heed Titmuss's wise counsel. The implications for the medical care of older people are only too clear from the picture he paints. So too would many current academics, practitioners and students profit from reading this splendid book." Ageing & Society

From the Publisher