Kirjahaku

This book provides a timely review of the contemporary interpretation of the ‘comprehensive health centre’, a building type that was originally advocated by health reformers in the UK in the first half of the twentieth century. The book discusses the development of this idea, the failure under the NHS to apply the idea in practice in the second half of the century and the recent emergence, in all four regions of the UK, of comprehensive health centres providing a wide range of health and social services, often linked to other community facilities. A review of the latest developments in comprehensive health centre design forms the core of the book in the form of detailed case studies of ten exemplary recent projects. Generously illustrated in full colour the case studies include plans, diagrams, photographs and analytical text, providing the reader with detailed information about a range of design approaches.Following devolution, NHS health policies in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have begun to diverge and the role of the comprehensive health centre in the current health service of each country is assessed. Aimed at professionals, healthcare facilities providers and policy makers, the book also considers the opportunities for and obstacles facing the further development of the comprehensive health centre as an integral part of the infrastructure of the NHS in the future.

This book provides a timely review of the contemporary interpretation of the ‘comprehensive health centre’, a building type that was originally advocated by health reformers in the UK in the first half of the twentieth century. The book discusses the development of this idea, the failure under the NHS to apply the idea in practice in the second half of the century and the recent emergence, in all four regions of the UK, of comprehensive health centres providing a wide range of health and social services, often linked to other community facilities. A review of the latest developments in comprehensive health centre design forms the core of the book in the form of detailed case studies of ten exemplary recent projects. Generously illustrated in full colour the case studies include plans, diagrams, photographs and analytical text, providing the reader with detailed information about a range of design approaches.Following devolution, NHS health policies in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have begun to diverge and the role of the comprehensive health centre in the current health service of each country is assessed. Aimed at professionals, healthcare facilities providers and policy makers, the book also considers the opportunities for and obstacles facing the further development of the comprehensive health centre as an integral part of the infrastructure of the NHS in the future.

Unlike later buildings called ‘health centres’, The Pioneer Health Centre was not a medical facility offering curative services. It was a club in which families were encouraged to cultivate their own health, and in which the doctors who ran the Centre attempted to look at health, science and social development in a new way. At one level, as a local social welfare project, the Centre was a significant success. At another, it had a much greater ambition, which was to find a way to address the growing threat that human activity posed to the natural environment. This aspect of the experiment was not a success, but can now be seen as having been visionary for its time. The story of the Peckham Experiment will appeal to anyone who is interested in the influence of biological ideas on social welfare politics in early twentieth century Britain, and anyone who is seeking to think about new ways to improve the human environment, strengthen local communities and improve the lives of ordinary people.