John Spiers

The Invisible Hospital and the Secret Garden is a unique commentary on the first years of NHS reform, from the health insider with a patient's perspective. John Spiers has been Chairman of one of the largest NHS hospital trusts, an adviser to the Prime Minister, and is now a health policy specialist with the leading 'think tank', the Social Market Foundation. He is also known to the wider public through broadcasting and journalism. He addresses the key issues of social consent, patient power and the challenges of determining what is clinically effective. He offers discomforting, original and constructive perspectives for managing change. He argues for both policy and practice to be science-based, open, cost-effective and based on standards set in close consultation with patients. Power must be passed to the consumer wherever possible. The Invisible Hospital and the Secret Garden proposes further ways in which this can be achieved, especially by giving patients influence over how money is spent. His original concepts of 'the invisible hospital' - which patients experience but managers often do not see - and the 'secret garden' - the mystique of medicine which limits necessary change - develop the debate on fundamental cultural issues.

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