An Introduction to Health: Policy, Planning and Financing

Brian Abel-Smith Longman Higher Education, pounds sterling30, pp 237 ISBN 0 582 23866 8 There is a paradox confronting biomedicine. Most informed opinion about health development relegates clinical practice to a marginal position. The engines of health development are better nutrition, education (especially of women), sanitation, fertility control, and decent housing—in short, adequate personal resources and greater equality. The paradox is that spending on clinical services in developed countries has soared in recent decades and, until recently, most developing countries have uncritically attempted to establish a …