Politics of Hospital Provision in Early Twentieth-Century Britain

Barry M Doyle is Professor of Health History at the University of Huddersfield and Director of the Centre for the History of Public Health and Medicine. His health care research has received significant support from the Wellcome Trust which funded his recently completed project examining the politics and finance of hospital provision in Yorkshire prior to the NHS. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter 1 Leeds and Sheffield: Economic, Social and Political Change; Chapter 2 Hospital Provision: Voluntary and Municipal; Chapter 3 Patients and Access; Chapter 4 Specialization and the Challenges of Modern Medicine; Chapter 5 Finance; Chapter 6 The Politics of Hospital Provision; Chapter 7 Co-operation, Competition and the Development of Hospital Systems; Conclusion;

"Drawing comparative patterns and conclusions from a case study of two cities, no matter how detailed, is always going to be problematic. To counter this, Doyle exhibits a thorough knowledge of the secondary literature to place his two cities in a broader context. He offers, too, some excellent data on hospital admissions and finances, and interesting thoughts on such side issues as the role and social function of almoners, and the impact of the motor car on hospitals." - Nick Hayes, Nottingham Trent University