"A frank and insightful assessment of the NHS with experience led suggestions on the care the service needs for the critical condition it’s in."
Dr Will Andrews has a wealth of knowledge working within a range of different aspects in healthcare, both in the UK and internationally. This wealth of experience is displayed through the concise, confident and approachable way that he approaches his consultation of the state of the National Health Service in Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters. Much like the title, and building on the national trend towards anthropomorphising and babying “our NHS”, Andrews assesses the System like a patient, exploring everything from the inception to modern day issues, the impact of the pandemic, staffing, technology. All grouped together in medially named categories, and structured into a flowing, developing argument.
This is an open, objective view of the NHS that is well supported by research and experience of public and private healthcare. I liked the comparison to American healthcare, which the author has had experience of - to a lay-person, we hear and read the media coverage suggesting our health service could be heading in that direction so it seems a pragmatic comparison that evaluates the pros and cons of both systems. This is a measured and well-thought out consultation that would be educational for everyone to read and should be part of the required reading for anyone in power.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
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Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters: 20 Operations to Fix the NHS
The NHS is more than a healthcare provider; it is the British national obsession. Most of us take the NHS for granted until the moment we need it most. It employs almost 2 million people and consumes 20 per cent of our taxes, yet it feels like the National Health Service is struggling to keep anyone happy.
Today, we watch with a mix of bafflement and despair as a system that was once the envy of the world becomes a medical traffic jam of 7.5-million-person waiting lists, disgruntled staff, and ambulance queues stretching into the next postcode.
How did we get here? What is around the corner for our health service? Still more importantly, is there a way back? What would that take?
In Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters, Dr Will Andrews - someone who has spent twenty years navigating the NHS and other health systems as a doctor, entrepreneur, and a healthcare expert for the likes of McKinsey and BCG - takes us all on a clear-eyed, and occasionally provocative tour of our national patient, prescribing 20 remedies - or operations - that would restore it to full health.
This isn't a dry policy document or a technical guide. Part memoir, part manifesto, it is a lively canter through a constructive cocktail of hard-won clinical wisdom and the kind of operational logic and pragmatism that make world-leading organisations thrive.
The patient isn’t dead yet - but they are definitely in the ICU. It’s time to stop the sticking plasters and start the surgery. Read Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters.
Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters features in the following genres: Indie Author Books, Indie Books We Love, Biographies & Autobiographies, Business and Management, History, Popular Science
Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters is available in Paperback
Surgery, Not Sticking Plasters was written by Dr Will Andrews and published by Independently published
