I found this book interesting and enjoyed reading about the English health care system both before and after the NHS was formed. It provides great insite into the changing structure and performance of the system. The first hand accounts from the staff working in the NHS show how things have changed and how challenging it is. The Covid-19 update to this book provided a good time line of events and is a great reference of the pandemic to look back on in years to come.

Thank you very much for the chance to read and review this book.

This book is timely, so timely. I think that the world is due for a really good book about the NHS, including a timeline of its past, present and its future. In fact, with all that is going on with the global pandemic, I think that this book (or those which may follow in this area) are needed in order to tell the story of these complex historical events. This book attempts to do so and of course does a great job in its aim. I think that in some ways it could be improved by way of organization of thoughts, but on the whole, I would suggest it!

I enjoyed this book, I thought it was well written and gave a good insight into the NHS.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'The NHS - The Story so Far'.

I found the book very interesting as it really explains how the NHS came about and how it has developed over the years. The update to deal with Covid-19 was informative and I am sure the book could be updated again next year as the vaccine is rolled out.

The NHS seems monolithic and while there is so much that needs to change, we are still very fortunate to have it.

Exploring our one-of-a-kind health system from its inception in July 1948, brought about by Clement Atlee's Labour government, through to its struggles to continue operating as normal during the pandemic, The NHS: The Story So Far is a fascinating, informative and well-researched book. It is a reprint of The NHS At 70: A Living History and now includes a chapter that explores how the NHS has coped with the COVID-19 crisis. It begins by considering what life was like for people pre-NHS and explains a little about the Spanish flu of 1918 as it was the last pandemic that overwhelmed the British; it is a crisis we really should have learned lessons from it but it appears we haven't and history is repeating itself once again.

Welch explains how the increasing demand for free-at-the-point-of-service healthcare has inevitably led to the NHS evolving to attempt to meet those demands. I found the anecdotes, facts and photographs helped the book come alive. The diaries of NHS frontline workers detailing the pressures they feel really was thought-provoking and gave me a profound appreciation for what doctors, nurses and other medical staff do for us each and every day. I strongly believe that healthcare should be based on the patients need rather than how much they can afford to pay and I hope it stays that way. It's definitely a concern that there is often talk about selling out and privatising it, which I pray does not happen. This is an engrossing, intriguing and eminently readable book and one I highly recommend.

This book has been updated for the COVID19 pandemic and retitled NHS the story so far , which looks at the origins of healthcare in England with poor laws and later the mixed healthcare until the creation of the NHS in 1948 and how the NHS has evolved over time with ever increasing demands to deliver free healthcare at the point of service and now in 2020 dealing with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. The part I did like was the COVID19 diaries by frontline staff detailing the pressures of working during pandemic times.

The NHS - The Story So Far is an ambitious work. It gives a background on public health before the birth of the NHS, briefly explaining workhouses, Galen's four humours, and the fact that people would commonly get all their teeth removed and replaced with dentures (!!!), then charts the NHS' life from its formation in 1948 until the present day, and then discusses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic upon it. Interspersed with the facts and timelines are photographs and stories from former and current medical staff, bringing in a real personal element and a renewed appreciation for the doctors and nurses who do their jobs day in and day out.

I do feel like some of the grammatical errors in this book let it down. There's a point where "phase" is used instead of "faze"; there's a few cases of commas used where semi-colons or full-stops ought to be; there's the odd apostrophe where it shouldn't be, like "patient's waiting for treatment" rather than "patients waiting for treatment"; and in the final few pages, "did they died" is written several times, not "did they die". I did read an advanced copy, though, so it's possible that all of these errors will be corrected by the time this book goes to print!

Those issues shouldn't deter somebody from picking this one up. It's a true testament to the NHS we in England know and love, and anyone can see the author's passion for it. In a time when worry for the future of the NHS runs rampant, Welch and the many contributors to her work reply that our health service is far from broken and, as Bevan supposedly said, will last as long as there are those willing to fight for it.