Dilemmas in Uk Health Care

This book considers the major dilemmas arising from funding, organization and delivery of health care in the United Kingdom in 2000 and beyond. 'Health care' is given the widest possible definition - stepping beyond the health service to include social, community, educational and government initiatives - in an analysis of the constraints on and opportunities for improving the nation's health.The authors come from a wide range of academic and research backgrounds in health and social care. They examine the dilemmas inherent in providing care that is simultaneously effective in alleviating disease and in promoting health, cost-effective in its use of financial and human resources, delivered equitably to those who need it, and humane in its treatment of service-users and health workers. A number of contemporary themes are explored: the management of financial and human resources, the evaluation of health care, participation in health care decisions, divisions in health care labour, the impact of technological innovations on sites of health care delivery and balancing the provision of hospital, primary and community care and the demand for curative and preventative services. The book concludes by examining the prospects for social and fiscal policies to make an impact on health.