The future health workforce

New Labour is determined to modernise the NHS and to end the 'old-fashioned demarcations between professionals. This book covers debates about nurse-led care, expanded responsibilities for the for high street pharmacist, the decline of the Dr Finlay-model GP, and much more. Many would agree that health care needs to be more patient-centred, more accessible more responsive to a demanding and informed public. But the chapters here are by no means always supportive of government measures. Contributors have asked what is happening now to their section of the workforce and what the future might be. The boundaries of traditional thinking about the workforce are breaking down. There are chapters here about practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine and about expert patients and carers. This is no dry account of the complexities and controversies of government policy towards the health professions. Together the contributors provide a vivid snapshot of the biggest and most complex workforce in the country and its likely futures.