James Farndale, Senior Lecturer in Hospital Administration, City of Westminster College, London, presents in this volume a series of papers on the administrative, social, and economic aspects of the British National Health Service. The volume authoritative, informative, and provocative, is intended for the general reader at home and abroad as well as for workers in the health service. The contributors—eminent doctors, hospital administrators, senior civil servants, barristers, economists, sociologists, and press representatives—all write with conviction based on intelligently evaluated experience.
The introduction presents the text as "a form of stock taking and also a self-examination in which are described some of our strong points and achievements, but in which are disclosed some of our weaknesses and problems." Little is offered to substantiate or deny accomplishment of the original aim of the National Health Service Act "to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people." It is obvious,