The NHS after 10 years of New Labour

This chapter reviews New Labour’s health policy, focusing on the modernization of the NHS. New Labour has influenced levels of NHS expenditure for the future by its financial settlements for the NHS since 2000. In turn, it has been influenced by neoliberal (originally Conservative) ideas for running the NHS. New Labour had stronger public health pretensions in 1997 but lost much of the impetus through destabilising and marginalising the public health function as a result of persistent reorganisation, as well as the superseding of public health concerns through economic choices (in terms of drinking hours and gambling, for example, as well as the wider absence of macro-redistribution) – with the ‘no smoking’ policy the major exception.

Economics · Labour economics · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Healthcare Systems and Challenges · History · Psychology