National Health Services of Western Europe. Challenges, reforms and future perspectives. By G.Giarelli and M.Saks, Abingdon/New York: Routledge. 2024. pp. 340. £108.00 (hbk); £31.99 (ebk). ISBN: 9780367689599
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Since the outbreak of the 2020-2023 COVID-19 pandemic, health-care provision and the role of the National Health Services (NHSs) has been at the centre of the discussions concerning a partial return of welfarism, at least in most Western countries.However, much of this debate has involved ideological stereotypes and political aspirations that simplify the complexity of welfare states and how health-care policies work.In this respect, National Health Services of Western Europe.Challenges, Reforms and Future Perspectives, edited and coordinated by Professors Guido Giarelli and Mike Saks, provides a detailed theoretical and empirical contribution regarding the evolution and structural challenges that confront NHSs in Western Europe.As the title suggests, and clearly encapsulates, the book focuses on the transformations in health-care institutional designs in a selection of countries, classified in three macro-regions: Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway), and the Mediterranean (Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece).Made up of chapters contributed by well-reputed authors in medical sociology, the book achieves a comprehensive and well-structured book based on neo-Weberian and neoinstitutionalist approaches.This can be observed in the presentation of the main hypothesis and research questions that scrutinise the role of the state and other relevant factors such as the practitioners' associations, civil society organisations, and the medical-industrial complex in each case study (Part I) before a general comparison (Part II).According to the conclusions by Giarelli and Saks, health-care provision systems are difficult to classify in a static and monolithic typology that identifies an iconic NHS model, currently under hybridisation after several decade-old reforms and demographic transformations.This leads to a first observation in which different path-dependencies and path-deviations show a divergent NHS model in each case study where the state plays a main role despite the heavy influence of the private sector.Second, despite similarities within macro-regions, there are certainly strong differences concerning the power balance and historical status held by
Source: Sociology of Health & Illness
Author: Andy Eric Castillo Patton
Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4402127500