No single discipline can provide a full account of why health care is the way it is. Introducing an accessible overview of health services and drawing on medicine, sociology, economics, history and epidemiology, this book provides a series of conceptual frameworks which help to clarify some of the complexity that confronts the inexperienced observer.

Helping to determine what influences and shapes health services, it also examines some of the key processes involved in providing healthcare, considering three levels: individual patients, health care organizations such as hospitals, and regional or national institutions such as governments.

This second edition has been updated to include recent developments and further examples and activities from low, middle and high income countries.

The book examines: . how medical knowledge, staff, patients and finance shape health services . what factors influence utilization of health services . the roles played by users of health services . how to define and measure outcomes and assess performance . how practice and policy can be changed to improve the quality of health care Understanding Health Services, 2nd Edition is an essential resource for students of public health and health policy, researchers, public health practitioners and policy makers.

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.