The First NHS (Hardback)

How John Tomley’s Work Led to Modern Healthcare

We all think the NHS was first dreamed up by Nye Bevan when he became minister of health in 1945. Yet experiments with the NHS and welfare state in fact started many years before.

Inspired by a doctor who coined the phrase “national health service” in 1910, John Tomley and David Davies took steps to pilot the first ever national health service, focusing on TB in Wales, the WNMA. Through the findings of the WNMA’s work, as well as John’s work as a local health commissioner and UK leader of the largest health service providers, the friendly societies, John campaigned for effective treatment for TB, including prevention and a national health service.

John successfully led the campaign for the government’s Welsh TB Inquiry, which led directly to the Beveridge Report and the founding of the NHS and wider welfare state in 1948. His family then forgot about his work, due to the ravages of a genetic disease, so John’s story has never been told. Meanwhile the NHS, which John helped to found, also led to a cure for this disease for his great-great-granddaughter.

The moral of this surprising tale? If John can do it, any of us can. We have what John described as the “golden keys’ in our hands. By understanding the crucial information John gave us from his life’s work, the importance of fighting all the Beveridge Report’s Five Giants at once, we can tackle the social determinants of health today, and change people’s lives for our generation and future generations.

How the NHS Coped with Covid-19 (Paperback)

2020 will forever be remembered as the year the coronavirus pandemic changed life as we know it across the world. Economies crashed, livelihoods were eradicated, and thousands of lives were shortened or devastated by the effects of this novel virus. In the UK, the National Health Service was thrust into the limelight as the country watched our healthcare system respond to the consequences of this disease.

This book traces a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting key events in how the UK and the NHS approached these unparalleled events. Comparisons are made with the experiences of colleagues around the globe and the decisions of our leaders questioned.

Alongside the facts, are stories. Every one of us has a ‘Covid Story’ to tell, and this book is a collection of some of these stories from our frontline staff. As the country went into rapid lockdown in March, the staff of the NHS donned their PPE and continued to go to work. They tell us what peak pandemic was like in the emergency departments, wards, ICUs, GP practices, care homes and the ambulances of the UK. We hear from a nurse who became a covid patient in her own ICU; staff from the rapidly constructed Nightingale hospital; a GP who returned from retirement to assist with the response; as well as stories from international healthcare professionals: a cruise ship nurse in the Caribbean; a public health consultant in Australia and doctors in South Africa and Palestine.

Understanding the NHS (Paperback)

How to Get the Most from Our National Health Service

The NHS is more than a good idea. It is beautiful. And it is you. The importance of the NHS – and the public’s affection for it – cannot be overstated, as seen through the COVID-19 pandemic. The author and his family of medics have lived and breathed the NHS, from before 1948, its birth and its history to date.

But this book is for people who do not come from this medical background and do not have this life experience. Thus there are three target audiences. Firstly, it can contribute to A level study of the NHS, and career advice for 6th form students who are applying to university for a degree in healthcare. Secondly, it will educate health and social care professionals in training and in their early years. So they can start with the knowledge that the author had when he went to university in 1979. Thirdly, the book is for everyone else, who want to know how it all fits together, and in this way, improve their healthcare, and that of their family.

The NHS - The Story so Far (Paperback)

The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has changed life as we know it and thrust the NHS into the spotlight. A nation in lockdown has adorned windows with rainbows and stepped onto doorsteps every Thursday to celebrate the people who are risking their lives by turning up to work. But as the grim reports of deaths from the disease cumulate, along with stories of insufficient protective equipment for staff, there is hope that the crisis will raise awareness and bring change to the way the NHS and its people are treated.

At midnight on 5 July 1948, the National Health Service was born with the founding principal to be free at the point of use and based on clinical need rather than on a person’s ability to pay. Over seventy years since its formation, these core principals still hold true, but the world has changed. Persistent underfunding has not kept pace with increased demand for healthcare, leading to longer waiting times, staffing shortages and low morale.

This book traces the history of our health service, from Victorian healthcare and the early 20th century, through a timeline of change to the current day, comparing the problems and illnesses of 1948 to those we face today. Politics and funding are demystified and the effects of the pandemic are discussed, alongside personal stories from frontline staff and patients who have experienced our changing NHS.