The National Health Service in Britain is constantly adapting to medical, social and political change. This classic text has kept pace with the extensive reforms, providing an objective, comprehensive description and analysis of the evolving management structures, and the organization of professional work and services for patients. The fifth edition has been substantially rewritten to include developments up to and including 1994. There is a new and timely chapter on the Health Care Economy which discusses the relevance of the market economy to the NHS. The new edition is in a larger format and includes many new, clearly-presented tables. Interested readers will include NHS managers, senior health professionals of all disciplines and students in these fields, as well as health care planners and students in parts of the world considering the introduction of social medicine.