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Side Effects: How Our Healthcare Lost its Way – And How We Fix it
***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick***
'David Haslam is uniquely placed to reflect on how healthcare has lost its way, what needs to be done to fix it and why all of us are responsible for doing so... The importance and timeliness of his messages shines through.' Dr Phil Hammond
'A fascinating and important book.' Dr Amanda Brown
With a single drug in the UK currently costing £340,000 per patient per year, or a gene therapy in the USA being costed at $1.2million, who should get such treatments, and how can we begin to afford them? Should we all be entitled to timely mental health therapy? How should we care for our old?
As we grapple with the world's worst pandemic for a century, our minds are on our health more than ever. But what should we rightfully expect of doctors? In this original and thought-provoking book, Sir David Haslam explores what good healthcare should achieve and asks how we pay for it. Informed by patient stories and data from across the world - from US big pharma to Britain's NHS - this is an urgent and often moving examination of our most important our health.
'David Haslam is uniquely placed to reflect on how healthcare has lost its way, what needs to be done to fix it and why all of us are responsible for doing so... The importance and timeliness of his messages shines through.' Dr Phil Hammond
'A fascinating and important book.' Dr Amanda Brown
With a single drug in the UK currently costing £340,000 per patient per year, or a gene therapy in the USA being costed at $1.2million, who should get such treatments, and how can we begin to afford them? Should we all be entitled to timely mental health therapy? How should we care for our old?
As we grapple with the world's worst pandemic for a century, our minds are on our health more than ever. But what should we rightfully expect of doctors? In this original and thought-provoking book, Sir David Haslam explores what good healthcare should achieve and asks how we pay for it. Informed by patient stories and data from across the world - from US big pharma to Britain's NHS - this is an urgent and often moving examination of our most important our health.
305 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2019
29 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 22, 2025
Suur osa väidetest peab paika, aga lahendusi neile on raske leida. Ega autor ka midagi revolutsioonilist välja paku. Niikaua kui põrkuvad solidaarsuskindlustus ja börsil kaubeldavad ravimi ja tehnoloogiafirmad jääb mure igavesti kestma.
December 15, 2022
This is a punchy, succinct examination of contemporary issues facing UK healthcare.
David Haslam is a former president of the BMA and, amongst other qualification, is well situated to be writing this type of book. He also has a qualified position from which to argue from. The main argument is that the issues facing modern British healthcare are not going to be solved simply by providing more funding. He makes this argument carefully and is well aware it is against popular thinking. Across the three opening chapters, Haslam details what has caused the increase in healthcare costs on a macro level since 1948, why they are a problem for us today and how healthcare practitioners have tried to address them.
It is a neat structure, and helped a great deal by Haslam's plain spoken language. The middle chapters take narrower arguments into account, looking at ageing, mental health, pain management and medicalisation in every day life. There is far less of a political edge to Haslam's writing than one might expect from a book about this topic. At no point does he attempt to win the reader's favour by taking cheap shots, or slip into a critical evaluation of various political policies. Most of Haslam's focus is on the provision of care by the NHS and the ways in which it has spiralled out of control financially.
Unfortunately, this does make the book very boring. Haslam's writing is purposefully plain, and his arguments are without force or vigour. It has urgency, but without any of the ideological direction such arguments require in order to win reader's hearts. For some reader's, this will be ideal. On the whole, it feels like a very dry think tank paper. In the final chapter Haslam attempts to centre the argument onto solutions but they all come across as well worn, and without novelty. Greater patient engagement, decentering care from hospitals towards communities, and reducing waste, are all commonly argued solutions not unique to this book. This is disappointing, and makes the ending feel a little damp.
What is novel is the arguments and how Haslam makes them. There are some exceptionally good ideas here, well worth checking out for people with a passion for healthcare policy. As such, people who want to read this book, will read it without needing to check the review.
David Haslam is a former president of the BMA and, amongst other qualification, is well situated to be writing this type of book. He also has a qualified position from which to argue from. The main argument is that the issues facing modern British healthcare are not going to be solved simply by providing more funding. He makes this argument carefully and is well aware it is against popular thinking. Across the three opening chapters, Haslam details what has caused the increase in healthcare costs on a macro level since 1948, why they are a problem for us today and how healthcare practitioners have tried to address them.
It is a neat structure, and helped a great deal by Haslam's plain spoken language. The middle chapters take narrower arguments into account, looking at ageing, mental health, pain management and medicalisation in every day life. There is far less of a political edge to Haslam's writing than one might expect from a book about this topic. At no point does he attempt to win the reader's favour by taking cheap shots, or slip into a critical evaluation of various political policies. Most of Haslam's focus is on the provision of care by the NHS and the ways in which it has spiralled out of control financially.
Unfortunately, this does make the book very boring. Haslam's writing is purposefully plain, and his arguments are without force or vigour. It has urgency, but without any of the ideological direction such arguments require in order to win reader's hearts. For some reader's, this will be ideal. On the whole, it feels like a very dry think tank paper. In the final chapter Haslam attempts to centre the argument onto solutions but they all come across as well worn, and without novelty. Greater patient engagement, decentering care from hospitals towards communities, and reducing waste, are all commonly argued solutions not unique to this book. This is disappointing, and makes the ending feel a little damp.
What is novel is the arguments and how Haslam makes them. There are some exceptionally good ideas here, well worth checking out for people with a passion for healthcare policy. As such, people who want to read this book, will read it without needing to check the review.
January 31, 2024
An interesting premise for a book, and it started well, articulating subject matter on how healthcare has got out of control. However, there was very little I found useful when it came to solutions. There seemed to be a lot of sitting on the fence, and quite a bit of pie in the sky intellectual rhetoric that I found irritating at best, condescending at worst. For me, a missed opportunity to really kickstart the debate on prioritising what we want to keep in our publicly funded health care system. Tough choices need to be made, and I feel the author shied away from making them, as they will be unpalatable to many.
September 28, 2022
Dr. Haslam presents a number of compelling ideas in this book that is accessible to both layman and expert readers alike, including the conundrum that efforts to reduce present-day ailments increase the incidence of other health problems and the challenge that this presents for health policy. A must read for anyone interested in healthcare administration in the UK, particularly with an eye towards crafting future healthcare priorities and policy.
December 23, 2023
Some interesting ideas expressed by a clinician with decades of experience. Particularly fascinating thoughts on death and quality of life. But this could have used a better editor. Bland writing, repetitive and muddled arguments. Wouldn't recommend unless you have a particular interest in health policy.
September 26, 2022
Well informed and important. Just wish it had been better written.
January 10, 2023
Essential reading for policy makers, politicians and everyone who uses the NHS.
November 28, 2023
Thoroughly enjoyed this, felt like I was reading the bible of modern healthcare.
Couldn’t put it down 🧬
10/10
Couldn’t put it down 🧬
10/10
January 21, 2024
I would like it to be compulsory reading for anyone in health care policy making.
February 4, 2024
Very interesting, quite dry
October 13, 2025
En genomgång av hur allt vi gör i vården skapar en alternativkostnad någon annanstans. Läsvärd och balanserad men kanske lite för få nya perspektiv för att vara riktigt anmärkningsvärd.
May 8, 2023
Written for a public audience, this books clearly sets out the challenges facing out public health care system. I shall be recommending it to all my students!
May 12, 2024
Definitely interesting, gives you a good understanding as to why the NHS is the way it is
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews