Martin McKee

“You won’t find a better textbook on public health than this. Comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date, informative, and very readable. A must for all public health reading lists.” Emeritus Professor Mike Daube, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia“In Issues in Public Health you will find detailed, evidence-based, contemporary discussion about the wide range of public health challenges facing public health professionals around the world.” Mary Lyons, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK“An essential resource for anyone looking to understand the foundations of public health and its ongoing evolution.” Dr Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health, USAWhat is public health? By looking at the foundations of public health, its historical and contemporary evolution, and the themes that underpin public health, this book provides detailed answers to this important question and encourages you to develop your critical thinking skills. Written by experts in the field, the book discusses the core issues of modern public health, such as tackling vested interests head on, empowering people so they can make healthy decisions, and acknowledging the political nature of the issues. This new edition has a section on mental health, as well as five new chapters reflecting key contemporary and global issues:• Commercial determinants of health• Planetary health• Conflict and health• Ethics surrounding human rights and public health• Information and public healthThe third edition of Issues in Public Health provides a thorough overview of the key concepts, practices, and principles of public health. Timely and relevant examples have been used to illustrate the challenges and opportunities global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have brought to the surface. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where it is used as a key learning resource for postgraduate programmes. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low, middle and high income countries. Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood.

Capital investment in European health systems has to take account of an array of challenges and opportunities: the demographic and epidemiological transitions associated with an ageing population; advances in medical technologies and pharmaceuticals; rising public expectations; and persistent health inequalities. This volume presents 11 case studies from across Europe and these offer a variety of perspectives on current issues relating to health capital investment and ways of trying to meet present challenges as well as those of the future. The case studies include the Orbis Medical Centre, Sittard, and the Martini Hospital, Groningen (both in the Netherlands); the St Olav's Hospital in Trondheim (Norway); the New Karolinska Solna Hospital in Stockholm (Sweden); the Coxa Hospital in Tampere (Finland); the Rh n Klinikum Group (Germany); the John Paul II Hospital in Krakow (Poland); the Alzira model in the Valencia region (Spain); regional planning in Northern Ireland and Tuscany (Italy); and the Private Finance Initiative (England).

Health targets can help to improve the governance of health systems. They express a commitment to achieve specified outputs over a defined period, and allow progress towards broad goals and objectives to be monitored. They may be quantitative or qualitative, and based on outcomes or processes. This book draws on a series of case studies on the use of health targets, written by experts from Catalonia (Spain), England (United Kingdom), Flanders (Belgium), France, Germany, Hungary and the Russian Federation. It reviews the major technical, managerial and political challenges of defining and implementing health targets. While they help focus attention on agreed goals, to realize their potential they need to be based on evidence, accepted by those who work to achieve them, be embedded in frameworks of mutual accountability, linked to appropriate incentives and/or sanctions and supported by an adequate intelligence infrastructure. The experiences of these countries and regions can serve as examples to all those in government who strive to improve the performance of their health systems.

European law is an increasingly important factor in the development and implementation of national and local health policy. Yet for many it remains shrouded in mystery. The situation with regard to laws impacting on health care is especially problematic as, typically, consequences arise from policies designed primarily to address problems in other sectors, which then establish general principles whose applicability to health care only becomes apparent once interpreted by rulings of the European Court of Justice. This book, written with the health and social policy community in mind, provides a comprehensive assessment of the main implications of EU law in certain key areas of health care.