Publisher's Synopsis
The policy of privatization has been widely discussed over a number of recent years since its inception in the US and its subsequent emergence in the UK. In both jurisdictions the ideology has been advocated by proponents of libertarian socioeconomic policies and in Britain received the commitment of the Conservatives. Notwithstanding this relatively little attention has been paid to the privatization of psychiatric care in the UK. As such, this is a neglected field of study. Private medical care remains a salient feature on the health care landscape. Significant not only in terms of policy, but also in terms of medicine and concentrates on specific specialities much of the time. It is one of these specialities ? medium secure independent psychiatric provision ? with which this book seeks to deal. In doing so it addresses the contribution currently being made to the existing public service, by the recently introduced private provision.
