Fairness in the NHS: Towards a Fairer Future for the National Health Service

This book is for everyone who is concerned about the successful future of a very special institution - the National Health Service (NHS).It provides the reader with an overview of the complexity of healthcare delivery, and the crucial influence that fairness should have on healthcare planning.The National Health Service Act was approved by Clement Attlee’s Labour Government on 5 July 1948.It was created in a great post-war spirit of community with the aim of providing free care at the point of need for everyone, rich or poor.However, right from the start the NHS has faced issues in tackling the challenges that arise in trying to be fair, and of how greater equity in healthcare can be achieved. The focus is on issues of fairness and equity in healthcare in the NHS, what fairness and equity mean both generally and in the organisational context.It begins with chapters on the inequalities that exist in UK healthcare delivery today.Then a series of chapters focuses on different elements of