Overview

This is a unique book, written by the former Chief Executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health from 2000 to 2006 - the only person to have held both roles. In this book, Lord Crisp addresses is the struggle to balance the desire for equity and social solidarity on the one hand and the drive for efficiency and markets on the other. He discusses the challenge to reconceptualise our health systems as being about society - health, education, work and leisure - and about helping citizens achieve greater independence and fulfilment as well as health. He suggests that the reform needs to be on three fronts at the same time: re-designing services so they operate better; reforming the whole system and its organisation and incentives; and, hardest of all,restructuring the workforce and its technology.The real life experiences discussed in this book provide lessons for the current reforms in the NHS and for health systems everywhere which are planning improvements and reform. The author draws these lessons out for the NHS in England, low and middle income countries which are engaged in health systems strengthening and for high income countries which are planning or undergoingreforms.

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9780199639953

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24 Hours to Save the NHS is a must-read for people working in the NHS and its critics... And more importantly it leaves us with a compelling vision for the future. Health Service Journal This book comes at a critical moment in the history of the NHS. It is essential reading for politicians, policymakers, professionals, and the public - Richard Horton, Editor, The Lancet Crisp navigates clearly through the policy and the politics, and in its structure (the main points are boxed at the end ofeach chapter) and style, this resembles a textbook. If the present government does indeed care about health care - and wants to avoid a series of budget-busting hospital bailouts - its commitment should be to services, not facilities. It cannot afford to ignore Crisp's advice, and there is no time to lose. Crisps real achievement was in securing more NHS funding and making the health system in general look respectable again and one can only believe the stories he recalls of impressed patients approaching him to ask the way out of the private patients departments, only to find, to their surprise, that they were in NHS patients departments all along. It is purely a reflection, a personal account. Yet the author does not leave out criticisms of himself or his own work, and takes care to show how he learned from these. This is the book of a proud man, and that is no bad thing at all, because he knows as we all do that the NHS is treasured. LSE Blog This insightful text is well structured and readable. It highlights important lessons that were learned from these years, including that private insurance is not the solution for some of the NHS gaps, and the need to focus more on areas such as health promotion and patient engagement. Nursing Standard

'This book comes at a critical moment in the history of the NHS. It is essential reading for politicians, policymakers, professionals, and the public' - Richard Horton, Editor, The Lancet

'24 Hours to Save the NHS' is a must-read for people working in the NHS and its critics... And more importantly it leaves us with a compelling vision for the future. Health Service Journal 'This book comes at a critical moment in the history of the NHS. It is essential reading for politicians, policymakers, professionals, and the public' - Richard Horton, Editor, The Lancet

Author Information

Nigel Crisp's earlier book 'Turning the world upside down - the search for global health in the 21st Century' takes further the ideas about mutual learning between rich and poor countries that he developed in his 2007 report for the Prime Minister Global Health Partnerships. Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords where he speaks mainly on global health and international development. He is a member of a number of international organisations and global task forces. He was Chief Executive of the English NHS - the largest health organisation in the world with 1.3 million employees - and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health and led major reforms and improvements in the whole system between 2000 and 2006. Previously he had been Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust, one of the UK's leading academic medical centres. For further information see nigelcrisp.com

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