NHS Plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care

NHS Plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care is a book by Professor Allyson M. Pollock, published in August 2004 by Verso Books.

According to a review of the book in The Guardian:

"Using history and research, Pollock reveals the fallaciousness of the propaganda that the NHS is unaffordable, monolithic and 'Stalinist'; the belittling language that on-message politicians use; and the delusion that the private sector is more efficient. In its hey-day the NHS was the most cost-effective system ever devised, in striking contrast to the private system of the US, which is designed to deliver only where there is profit to be made, and in which fraud on a massive scale is endemic. The Conservatives introduced the era of the internal market and GP fundholding, in which money was increasingly diverted from care and into burgeoning (and costly) bureaucracy. They also dreamed up the PFI, which Labour eagerly grasped and has relentlessly pursued in spite of the widespread discrediting of its intellectual case." [1]

SourceWatch resources

• Alan Milburn

External links

• Homepage for the book at Verso Books
• Mike Davis, "Balance sheets come first in NHS-PLC", Chartist, December 2004. An interview with Pollock about the book.

Reviews

• Margaret Cook, "In sickness and in health" (review), The Guardian, October 2, 2004.
• Alison Hill, "Review: NHS Plc. by Allyson Pollock", International Socialist Voice, November 1, 2004.