Recommended reading: books and articles

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

	The NHS After 60 - For patients or profits? by John Lister This new critical history of the National Health Service is 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 24 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 is published by Middlesex University Press, standard price £25. ISBN 978 1 904750 30 7 Special Offer: To obtain your copy at the special price of £20 (saving £5 on the cover price), download this order form and send it with your payment to Middlesex University Press. Remember to quote the promotional code KONP1 to qualify for the reduced price. The book can also be ordered online from Middlesex University Press www.mupress.co.uk
	Confuse & Conceal - The NHS and Independent Sector Treatment Centres by Stewart Player and Colin Leys As the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the first freely available health service approaches, the threat to the NHS as we know it is serious, and if we as a nation do not act vigorously now, will lead to irreversible damage. Stewart Player and Colin Leys have managed to get behind the government spin about choice and the 'Patient led NHS'. The contents of the Department of Health's frequent press releases are usually reported accurately by the media but without any critical analysis or in-depth scrutiny. Using quotes from Department of Health policy documents and evidence given to the House of Commons Health Committee (which looked at ISTCs in 2006) and supplemented by Freedom of Information requests, the authors make a convincing case for a conspiracy to change the NHS irrevocably. Confuse & Conceal   is published by Merlin Press www.merlinpress.co.uk Special offer: You can buy this book from us for £10 including postage and packing (normal price in the shops is £10.95). Send a cheque or postal order with your name and address to: KONP, 19 Vincent Terrace, London N1 8HN.
	Health Policy in Europe - Contemporary dilemmas and challenges Edited by Alexis Benos, Hans Ulrich Deppe and John Lister 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) www.healthp.org
	Health Policy Reform - Driving the Wrong Way? by John Lister, London Health Emergency 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 Middlesex University Press www.mupress.co.uk.
	NHS plc - The Privatisation of Our Health Care by Allyson M Pollock An analysis of the transition from universal, publicly funded health care to New Labour's application of market principles: a national institution reaching crisis point and a key lesson for those concerned with health care everywhere. Universal, comprehensive health care, equally available to all and disconnected from income and the ability to pay, was the goal of the founders of the National Health Service. This book, by one of the NHS's most eloquent and passionate defenders, tells the story of how that ideal has been progressively eroded, and how the clock is being turned back to pre-NHS days, when health care was a commodity, fully available only to those with money. NHS plc  is published by Verso www.versobooks.com.