Abstract
In this society, there is a tendency to see health as very much an individual issue. This leads to an emphasis on the biological causes of ill-health together with the recent stress on personal factors such as smoking and weight. Improvements in health are seen as resulting from intervention by doctors at the level of the individual, or changes in personal life-style. This chapter looks at health and health care from a different point of view, focusing on social, political, economic and environmental aspects of health. It will become apparent that health is not a purely personal matter, but an area of considerable national and social concern.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and references
Central Statistical Office, Social Trends1994, 24 (London: HMSO, 1994), p. 93.
Colin Thunhurst, It Makes You Sick: The Politics of the NHS (London: Pluto Press, 1982), p. 3.
Central Statistical Office, Annual Abstract of Statistics (London: HMSO, 1994).
Christopher Ham, Health Policy in Britain, 3rd edn (London: Macmillan, 1992) p. 61.
Central Statistical Office, Social Trends1994 24 (London: HMSO, 1994), p. 105.
BUPA, A Special BUPA Health Care Scheme (London: BUPA, 1981).
The Audit Commission, A Prescription for Improvement (London: Audit Commission, 1994).
For example, M. Stacey, ‘People who are affected by the inverse law of care’, Health and Social Security Journal (3 June 1977); A. Cartwright and M. O’Brien, ‘Social Class Variations in Health Care’, in M. Stacey (ed.), The Sociology of the NHS Keele: Sociological Review Monograph, 82, (1976)
M. R. Alderson, ‘Social Class and the Health Service’, The Medical Officer (17 July 1970).
TUC, The Unequal Health of the Nation: A TUC Summary of the Black Report (London: TUC, 1981).
Andrew Veitch and Nicky Hart ‘How the government buried its dead reckoning’, Guardian (30 July 1986), p. 21.
Copyright information
© 1995 Pat Young
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Young, P. (1995). Health and the health services. In: Mastering Social Welfare. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13680-3_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13680-3_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-63199-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-13680-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)