The State of Medicine: Keeping the Promise of the NHS

by Margaret McCartney

The NHS is 'the closest thing the UK has to a national religion'. No wonder: it has worked secular miracles. Before the NHS, sick children could not see a doctor before a sixpence was handed over. People died of whooping cough and tuberculosis, illnesses we now scarcely see. When the NHS was founded, almost 70 years ago, people in the UK lived less than 50 years on average - a lifespan which has almost doubled. No matter how poor we are, our health care is included with British citizenship. But the NHS has also been accused of high death rates, lazy and uncaring staff, dirty hospitals and unbridgeable funding gaps. Every politician claims to know how to save the NHS. Margaret McCartney argues differently. She believes that the NHS is world class: but politicians have to stop micromanaging based on faith in their own political beliefs and instead base decisions on evidence. Patients and professionals working together to deliver an evidence-based NHS is the only future - if we want our NHS to survive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Medicine, Health

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 27, 2016

About the author

Margaret McCartney is a GP in Glasgow, and has three children. She started writing for the press after being infuriated by an article in a newspaper which claimed that CT body screening was the way to stay well. Since then she has written for most UK newspapers, as well as the British Medical Journal (BMJ), other magazines such as Vogue and Prospect, has had columns in the Guardian and the FT Weekend, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Inside Health. She has won prizes from the Medical Journalists’ Association and the European School of Oncology, as well as the Healthwatch award.

She has a strong interest in evidence, professionalism, screening and risk. She blogs and tweets. The Patient Paradox is her first book

Reviews

[Irum · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, interesting in terms of how political decisions have impacted the NHS and therefore patient care. The interviews with various healthcare professionals, researchers and a patient were nice to read too. Quite repetitive at times but got the point across very well that the NHS is an extremely valuable, but underfunded institution that often falls prey to poor decisions (with no evidence to support them) made by politicians instead of healthcare professionals and patients. 3.4/5 stars

[R S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting viewpoint but not very balanced

[David Benbow · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review of this book (and of two others), published in 'The Sociological Review', is available here:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/...