What Makes a Good Health Care System? examines the various assumptions that underpin the different views of what makes a good health care system. The national systems in the UK, Australia and Canada are thoroughly examined. Each country has a different view of what a good health care system is trying to achieve, and the book elucidates these by highlighting key policy documents and comments from key stakeholders. Case studies emphasise the diverse needs and expectations of individuals, examining and comparing concepts of health needs, quality as a measure of 'good-ness' and the various ideas on Gold Standards. This book will be valuable reading for all healthcare managers and clinicians with management responsibilities, as well as policy makers and shapers and all those with a general interest in health.

Information is a key resource to primary health care and is increasingly required in individual practices. This book will demystify the subject, which is often presented in complex terms. It sets out in a simple and interesting way what information those working in primary care will need, the systems required to deliver them and how to set them up. Information and IT for Primary Care uses exercises, stories, key points, case studies, model answers and think boxes. Worldwide web links refers the reader to resources and shows how to get the most out of your computer. The book is user-friendly, jargon free and based on primary research evidence. It is essential reading for everyone working in primary care organisations including GPs, practice managers and nurses, and staff working in community trusts and the NHS.

Immunisation is one of the few preventive interventions of undoubted and proven effectiveness...GPs are thoroughly convinced of the public health arguments in favour of immunization and regard it as an integral part of their clinical practice. This book is designed to help them plan provide develop and monitor a comprehensive immunisation service not only for their NHS patients but also if they wish on a private basis for travellers and for local companies. Good practice organisation is the key to providing high quality clinical and preventive services and this book is a notable and helpful contribution towards that good organisation. It should help even the most efficient doctors to ensure that they are providing the best managed and most profitable immunisation service they can - a service that should be welcomed by the patients it will benefit.' John Chisholm in the Foreword

The 1930s have never really been considered an epoch within Irish literature, even though the Thirties form one of the most dominant and fascinating contexts in modern British literature. This book argues that during this time Irish poets faced up to political pressures and aesthetic dilemmas which frequently overlapped with those associated with "The Auden Generation." In so doing, it offers a provocative intercession into Irish history. But more than this, it offers powerful arguments about the way poetry in general is interpreted and understood.
In this way, Gillis seeks to redefine our understanding of a frequently neglected period and to challenge received notions of both Irish literature and poetic modernism. Irish Poetry of the 1930s gives detailed and vital readings of the major Irish poets of the decade, including original and exciting analyses of Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, and W. B. Yeats.

Alan Gillis – one of the most admired Irish poets of his generation – addresses some of the most pressing concerns of the age: how can we live at the centre of our contemporary paradox, disconnected and hyper-connected as we are?

A poet of thresholds and crossings, Gillis finds his answers in the suburbs and edgelands, at the hesitation before the doorstep or the gate. The Readiness sites itself at the heart of our human contradictions, and explores their meaning. These poems form a series of bad dreams and clear visions that speak to the chaos and fragility of both self and society: the childhood innocence that persists into the resignation of adulthood; the beauty of nature in an age of environmental ruin; the terrible isolation of contemporary life – and the live-streamed, advert-laden over-wiring that springs from its digital commons. It does this with a formal confidence, a dry wit and often astonishing lyricism that marks Gillis as one of the most individual and vital poetic voices now at work.

Forty chapters, written by leading scholars across the world, describe the latest thinking on modern Irish poetry. The Handbook begins with a consideration of Yeats's early work, and the legacy of the 19th century. The broadly chronological areas which follow, covering the period from the 1910s through to the 21st century, allow scope for coverage of key poetic voices in Ireland in their historical and political context. From the experimentalism of Beckett, MacGreevy, and others of the modernist generation, to the refashioning of Yeats's Ireland on the part of poets such as MacNeice, Kavanagh, and Clarke mid-century, through to the controversially titled post-1969 'Northern Renaissance' of poetry, this volume will provide extensive coverage of the key movements of the modern period. The Handbook covers the work of, among others, Paul Durcan, Thomas Kinsella, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, and Ciaran Carson. The thematic sections interspersed throughout - chapters on women's poetry, religion, translation, painting, music, stylistics - allow for comparative studies of poets north and south across the century. Central to the guiding spirit of this project is the Handbook's consideration of poetic forms, and a number of essays explore the generic diversity of poetry in Ireland, its various manipulations, reinventions and sometimes repudiations of traditional forms. The last essays in the book examine the work of a 'new' generation of poets from Ireland, concentrating on work published in the last two decades by Justin Quinn, Leontia Flynn, Sinead Morrissey, David Wheatley, Vona Groarke, and others.

This is a new edition of this established guide for students studying literature for the first time. This up-to-the minute foundational guide introduces the full range of literary forms, styles, theories and critical strategies which new students need to cover. By careful use of examples it demonstrates exactly how strategies for reading texts can be put to work and all texts discussed are conveniently available in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. The successful first edition is now updated with the latest in research and teaching by the academics based at one of the UK's leading university literature departments. It features a new Students Resources section with 3 new chapters on Reading, Writing, and Reflecting and including 'how to' features such as how to avoid plagiarism, and how to prepare a bibliography. It discusses both British and American authors, while the texts discussed in the book generally appear in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. It introduces a wide range of literary forms, styles and critical strategies, essential knowledge for the beginning student of literature.

This book has been written as a response to the increasing polarisation of the public debate between science and religion. On one side of the debate, there are the "aggressive atheists", who claim to represent Science. On the other you have religious fundamentalists, who amongst other things insist on the literal truth of Scriptural writings. This view ignores a huge constituency or people with more moderate views: scientists inspired by a sense of wonder at what they discover in their daily work, religious adherents who hold much more tolerant and inclusive views of the world, or indeed agnostics who either hold no strong view or acknowledge that they simply "don't know". Many people look to science or religion for answers because they feel uncertain about the future. They want nice simple answers that make them feel secure. This book will not provide simple answers. It will try to follow Einstein's advice that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Software Quality: Theory and Management has been in print around the world since 1992. After the publisher accidentally removed it from the European market in 1998, it continued to sell well in South East Asia and has to date sold over 10,000 copies world-wide. Originally used with BSc and MSc students at the University of Salford, previous editions have been used as a textbook in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. However, the contents of the second edition look sadly dated by now, and even core concepts such as development methodologies have moved on substantially. Therefore, I have decided to produce a third edition which has been updated in both content and method of delivery.

This book has been designed to help dentists to establish and maintain information systems that are necessary for effective working. It will consider the context of dentists in the UK, USA and Canada. It tries to do at least six (almost ) impossible things: 1. Talk about information in an interesting way. 2. Show how information can actually be useful. 3. Explain how to get you to love your computer. 4. Make SNODENT Codes interesting. 5. Help practices to share meaningful information. 6. Make you smile while reading a book about information. It includes references to incredibly unhip comedy series such as 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (such as why not round off this chapter by breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?). The book assumes that you the reader are based in, or work with, a dental practice. Each chapter includes exercises that generally require you to have access to a dental practice.

The NHS is currently in the middle of the biggest information technology project in Western Europe, which will fundamentally change the working practices of all NHS staff over the next five years. This book explains to ordinary clinicians why they should be bothered with IT, and what their responsibilities are in making it work. This book provides an enlightening and reassuring read that dispels ignorance and suspicion. The user friendly style is helpful, and friendly panels with tips, warnings, reflective pauses and key points highlight important details. It is also suitable for use as a student textbook. The Clinician's Guide to Surviving I.T. is a must for every doctor, nurse and midwife in the NHS.

This clear, straightforward and practical book uses the example of a disease register to show how computers can work for you, and not the other way round. The results are improved patient health and patient care. And computers play a major role in achieving this. The book describes how to computerise patient records, implement systems to process them in accordance with best practice and available evidence, improve working practices and procedures, train staff and manage the process of change. In addition the book provides an overview of the process of implementing an electronic disease register, examines the real example of a coronary heart disease (CHD) register in a primary care organisation, and considers future developments, including the impact of the CHD National Service Framework. Whatever stage of computerisation your practice is at, whether you are a general practitioner, practice manager, or other member of the primary care team or primary care organisation, you will find this to be an essential guide.

This informal, fun guide is ideal for anyone involved in public speaking; addressing a group of people in a wide range of situations including lecturing as part of your day job, presenting research findings to your academic peers, and presenting to potential future colleagues as part of an interview process. These situations are all different, and as with many things, context is everything. Whether you're working with large or small audiences, there are basic rules for speaking that should never be overshadowed by bewildering presentation technology.

This work includes a foreword by Jeffrey Koplan, Vice President, Academic Health Affairs, Emory University, Atlanta, Formerly Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This groundbreaking new book blows apart the myths about who is at risk of getting AIDS and shows how these myths are driven by moral and political pressures. It provides an objective, logical, clear, epidemiologically based analysis on the current situation and situates itself firmly at marked variance with the politically correct position of UNAIDS and most AIDS activists. "The AIDS Pandemic" argues that the story of HIV has been distorted by UNAIDS and AIDS activists in order to support the myth of the high potential risk of HIV epidemics spreading into the general population. In the past, most policy makers and members of the public have uncritically accepted UNAIDS' high prevalence estimates and projections when in fact lower HIV prevalence estimates are more accurate. Time, money and resources are being wasted worldwide. This book is full of fresh analysis for all people working in any capacity in HIV/AIDS programmes. It will be invaluable to undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare students, health and social care professionals and the international media. Policy makers and shapers will find the pioneering information crucial to the future of the AIDS strategy. 'For close to a half century, my work as a public health epidemiologist has involved field research, program management, and teaching, mostly on public health surveillance and prevention and control of communicable diseases. [Since 1981] I have been involved virtually full time with the international response to the AIDS pandemic which is without question one of the most severe infectious disease pandemics in modern times. During my public health career that began in the early 1960s, I have always been considered a part of conventional or mainstream medical science. However, since the mid-1990s, I have found myself swimming upstream against mainstream AIDS organisations. I have, during this period, gradually come to the realisation that AIDS programs developed by international agencies and faith based organizations have been and continue to be more socially, politically, and moralistically correct than epidemiologically accurate.' - James Chin, in the Preface. 'Controversy and differing opinions have been hallmarks of the AIDS epidemic since its onset. The scope of the problem, how to identify high risk groups without increasing the burden of stigma, the safety of blood products, the best balance between prevention and treatment, have all been hot issues sometimes dividing the public health community. The passion and conflicts about how to consider and address the AIDS pandemic reflect the huge impact this disease has had globally and its interplay with macro economic, legal, social, political, national security and ethical domains. Vital, provocative, thoughtful, direct, passionate, rational and willing to challenge conventional wisdom. "The AIDS Pandemic" is filled with information, rational arguments and opinions, often intermingled. It is a rare book on epidemiology that puts so much of the author's personality and viewpoints, along with his knowledge and experience, before the reader. The result is a thought-provoking, likely-to-be-controversial, contribution to the AIDS literature that should engage and stimulate the reader.' - Jeffrey Koplan, in the Foreword.