Product Description

Based on his experiences of helping to fight cuts and closures in Suffolk, Michael Mandelstam delivers a damning verdict on the mismanagement of the NHS at national, regional and local level. He charts the widespread cutbacks and closures, both rural and urban, to clinics, A&E services, beds, wards and scores of community hospitals. He outlines how humane care, particularly for older people, is compromised by the ruthless determination of NHS management to increase patient throughput and hit government-set targets. The author highlights how the chaotic change to the NHS is being driven by concealed agendas - including privatisation of the NHS, obsessive interference from central government and well as selective use, if not abandonment, of evidence-based practice. Seriously flawed and damaging decisions are the result, affecting the population at large as well as those most vulnerable - older people with chronic and complex needs, people with physical or learning disabilities and people with mental health problems. Above all, he exposes the scandalous lack of transparency and accountability behind changes that threaten to destroy the NHS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #327067 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 317 pages

About the Author
Michael Mandelstam has worked independently since 1995 providing legal training, advice and consultancy to local authorities, the NHS and voluntary organisations. Previously he worked for ten years at the Disabled Living Foundation, a national voluntary organisation, before moving to the Social Services Inspectorate at the Department of Health. He holds postgraduate qualifications in law, information studies, and history of science and medicine. He is the author of Community Care Practice and the Law, now in its third edition, An A - Z of Community Care Law, Equipment for Older or Disabled People and the Law, and Manual Handling in Health and Social Care: An A-Z of Law and Practice all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Customer Reviews

Another indictment of current NHS policies in Britain
This is a superb book. Presented clearly, with every charge sustained and referenced fully. The problems with NHS decision making (It's not local, democratic or sensible) are laid bare.

This book gives a detailed account of the local problems that arise from the policies described in NHS plc.

An excellent addition to the library of books that add to our understanding of what is happening to real patients in real healthcare settings.