Published
Jul 5, 2023Page count
170 pagesISBN
978-1447368878Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jul 5, 2023Page count
170 pagesISBN
978-1447368892Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
How Britain Loves the NHS
In the media:
How much does Britain still ‘love’ the NHS? for The Spectator
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
What does it mean to love a healthcare system?
It is often claimed that the UK population is unusually attached to its National Health Service, and the last decade has seen increasingly visible displays of gratitude and love. While social surveys of public attitudes measure how much Britain loves the NHS, this book mobilises new empirical research to ask how Britain loves its NHS.
The answer delves into a series of public practices – such as campaigning, donating and volunteering within NHS organisations – and investigates how attitudes to the NHS shape patient experience of healthcare. Stewart argues that these should be understood as practices of care for, and contestation about the future of, the healthcare system.
This book offers a timely critique of both the potential, and the dysfunctions, of Britain’s complex love affair with the NHS.
“Stewart is optimistic that affection tempered with realism could be a force for change.” The Spectator
Ellen A. Stewart is Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde.
1. On loving the NHS
2. Public opinion and the NHS
3. Fundraising for the NHS
4. Volunteering in the NHS
5. Campaigning for the NHS
6. Using and loving the NHS
7. What we can do with love: the future of the NHS in public
