The history of health care is complex, confusing, and contested. It involves more than just the creation of hospitals and dispensaries, infirmaries, and health centers. There are also royal colleges, trades unions, medical schools, nurses homes, coroners courts, nursing sisterhoods, ambulance stations, patients organizations, and medical missions.

Usually, to enhance our understanding we sit and read books, or, nowadays, surf the Internet. But it s more fun to go out, visit the buildings where events unfolded and transport yourself back in time. The story of how health care has developed from medieval times to the present day is told through seven walks in central London, each with a key theme, such as:

• Competition between the church, crown, and city for control
• Changing fortunes of particular districts
• Radical reform between 1840 and 1880
• Individual creativity and entrepreneurship
• Hospitals unavoidable choice between merger or migration
• Transformation of health care trades into professions
• Development of primary care

The book takes as much interest in one of the six ambulance stations build in 1915 by the London County Council as it does in the grandest teaching hospital. Although some important buildings have been destroyed, and others are threatened, many remain. The walks aim to help preserve our legacy as, increasingly, former health care buildings are converted into hotels, offices, homes, and shops. Awareness of their original functions is in danger of being lost. The book also aims to increase our understanding of the current challenges we face in trying to improve health care. For there are many lessons to be learnt from the past.

Packed full of curious and surprising facts about medicine and beautifully illustrated with maps, photographs, and images, this is the perfect guide book for anyone with a passion for urban walks, the history of London, and, of course, medicine. "

Research into the delivery and organisation of health care is a vital component in the improvement of health services. A wide range of disciplines and methods needs to be deployed to address research questions in this field. This unique Reader brings together thirty examples of high-quality SDO research using a range of disciplines, including organisational studies, epidemiology, sociology, history, health economics, anthropology and policy studies, illustrating the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches and primary and secondary research. Expert editorial commentary highlights different themes and methodological issues. Studying the Delivery and Organisation of Health Services: A Reader covers six main areas of research: ullet Patient and carer centred services: Organising services around the user ullet Patient and carer centred services: User involvement in organising services ullet Workforce issues ullet Evaluating models of service delivery ullet Quality management and the management of change ullet Studying health care organisations. topics covered, the research methods used and their overall significance. This Reader is a companion volume to Studying the Organisation and Delivery of Health Services: Research Methods edited by Naomi Fulop, Pauline Allen, Aileen Clarke and Nick Black also published by Routledge (2001). It makes top-quality, empirical and secondary research readily accessible to health service managers and health care professionals who are interested in research, to health service researchers and to undergraduate and postgraduate students following courses in health and health management studies.

Research into the delivery and organisation of health care is a vital component in the improvement of health services. A wide range of disciplines and methods needs to be deployed to address research questions in this field. This unique Reader brings together thirty examples of high-quality SDO research using a range of disciplines, including organisational studies, epidemiology, sociology, history, health economics, anthropology and policy studies, illustrating the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches and primary and secondary research. Expert editorial commentary highlights different themes and methodological issues. Studying the Delivery and Organisation of Health Services: A Reader covers six main areas of research: ullet Patient and carer centred services: Organising services around the user ullet Patient and carer centred services: User involvement in organising services ullet Workforce issues ullet Evaluating models of service delivery ullet Quality management and the management of change ullet Studying health care organisations. topics covered, the research methods used and their overall significance. This Reader is a companion volume to Studying the Organisation and Delivery of Health Services: Research Methods edited by Naomi Fulop, Pauline Allen, Aileen Clarke and Nick Black also published by Routledge (2001). It makes top-quality, empirical and secondary research readily accessible to health service managers and health care professionals who are interested in research, to health service researchers and to undergraduate and postgraduate students following courses in health and health management studies.

There is increasing recognition that advances in medicine are only part of the answer to better health care. These advances, together with rising expectations of health care users, mean that demands on the way we organise and deliver services will become greater. It is therefore essential that we advance our understanding and knowledge of how best to organise and deliver health services. This book, written by experienced teachers and researchers, introduces research methods from a wide range of social science disciplines and applies them to health service research.
Each chapter takes a different research method or approach and provides: theoretical background; a description of the method; advice on how to use it; relevant examples; a discussion of the limitations of the method; a list of further reading.
Research methods covered include: epidemiology; organisational psychology; action research; political science/policy analysis; organisational economics; historical methods and operational research. This book also looks at the issues in synthesising evidence from qualitative research and non-experimental quantitative studies.
This is an invaluable reader for researchers, students and research funders and provides an appropriate text for the growing number of courses in the multidisciplinary field of health services research.

There is increasing recognition that advances in medicine are only part of the answer to better health care. These advances, together with rising expectations of health care users, mean that demands on the way we organise and deliver services will become greater. It is therefore essential that we advance our understanding and knowledge of how best to organise and deliver health services. This book, written by experienced teachers and researchers, introduces research methods from a wide range of social science disciplines and applies them to health service research.
Each chapter takes a different research method or approach and provides: theoretical background; a description of the method; advice on how to use it; relevant examples; a discussion of the limitations of the method; a list of further reading.
Research methods covered include: epidemiology; organisational psychology; action research; political science/policy analysis; organisational economics; historical methods and operational research. This book also looks at the issues in synthesising evidence from qualitative research and non-experimental quantitative studies.
This is an invaluable reader for researchers, students and research funders and provides an appropriate text for the growing number of courses in the multidisciplinary field of health services research.

No single discipline can provide a full account of why health care is the way it is. Introducing an accessible overview of health services and drawing on medicine, sociology, economics, history and epidemiology, this book provides a series of conceptual frameworks which help to clarify some of the complexity that confronts the inexperienced observer. Helping to determine what influences and shapes health services, it also examines some of the key processes involved in providing healthcare, considering three levels: individual patients, health care organizations such as hospitals, and regional or national institutions such as governments. This second edition has been updated to include recent developments and further examples and activities from low, middle and high income countries. The book examines: * how medical knowledge, staff, patients and finance shape health services * what factors influence utilization of health services * the roles played by users of health services * how to define and measure outcomes and assess performance * how practice and policy can be changed to improve the quality of health care Understanding Health Services, 2nd Edition is an essential resource for students of public health and health policy, researchers, public health practitioners and policy makers. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where it is used as a key learning resource for postgraduate programmes. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low, middle and high income countries. "This excellent book provides an ideal background to understanding how health services work and how they can be studied. Not tied to any particular country, it includes key chapters on how health services have developed and are organised, need and demand, the role of health professionals, and measuring and improving quality of care. The book is ideal reading for students on Masters courses in public health and related subjects from high-, middle- and low-income countries and includes learning objectives and exercises in each chapter which can be completed individually or used for discussion. Strongly recommended." Martin Roland, Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research, University of Cambridge, UK "Health services are central to attaining high levels of population health and providing those services consumes a substantial share of our financial resources. This book provides a splendid introduction to many of the key building blocks including medical knowledge and other key inputs, payment and other factors that influence utilization, and in turn quality of care and outcomes. The learning objectives are a wonderful aid for self-directed learning as are the directed activities and feedback, the text is lucid and the main concepts are very easy to access. This is a great book for someone looking to develop a broad understanding of health services. I will be surprised if it does not become a classic. It will surely be at the top of my list of recommended readings for my own students." Arnold M Epstein, John H Foster Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, USA

Westminster Hall, 13 December 1828. Midnight. Thousands are massed outside. Newspapers are holding their presses. James Lambert, a young apothecary-surgeon, has accused a leading surgeon at Guy's Hospital of killing a patient. Never before has a doctor's competence been challenged in a court. What drove him to take on the medical establishment, risking everything he'd always wanted? For two centuries his contribution to the making of modern health care has lain unrecognised. This novel, based on true events, tells his extraordinary story.