Slow Poisoning? Interests, Emotions, and the Strength of the English NHS Comment on "Who Killed the English National Health Service?"

Abstract

Martin Powell makes the point that the death of the National Health Service (NHS) is constantly asserted without criteria. This article suggests that the NHS is many things, which makes criteria unstable. The alignment of interests in the structure of the NHS enables both overheated rhetoric and political strength, and that pluralization of provision might actually undermine that alignment over time.

The occupation of accessing healthcare and processes of (dis)citizenship in UK Somali migrants: Sheffield case study

“…In the UK equal access to healthcare is regarded as a fundamental right to all, and is a core principle in the post war social contract which British people 4 have with government, expressed in the National Health Service (NHS) constitution (Department of Health, 2015;Hand, Davies, & Healey, 2016). The NHS, which has long been Britain's largest employer and one of the world's largest single organisations, is a significant and revered element of British culture (Greer, 2015;Hunter, 2016). Exclusion from this public service may not only be denial of the right to health services, but a denial of citizenship (Bloom, 2009).…”

Let's Raise a Half-Full Glass to the Zombie NHS: A Response to Recent Commentaries

“…While the NHS's fiscal future seems assured in the immediate future, its long-term prospects are a different matter. Second, Scott Greer 3 argues that the analytic problems raised might be disguising a larger issue of what exactly is the NHS? Like Klein, he agrees that the very multidimensionality of the NHS makes it hard to identify criteria and evaluative templates for its death.…”