Is free healthcare a human right? What happens if there isn't funding to provide access to every opportunity? Who misses out? Are we responsible for our own positive health? Is there a correct answer to the provision of healthcare? This introductory course compares health care policy in the UK and USA and tracks the evolution of health policy in the UK prior to and since the implementation of the National Health Service. It also identifies contingencies and issues that remain problematic in health care delivery across differing systems despite the ongoing changes made to this service, and the ideological shifts that underpin these changes. Using a spiral curriculum approach, the course seeks to synthesize the concepts through returning to previous learning and providing space for reflection and comparison with the student’s own experiences of health care in the USA.

EXAMPLE CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES (2-4 PER COURSE)

• Visit to St Thomas’s Old Operating Theatre
• ‘Public Health’ Walk
• St. Christopher’s Hospice

COURSE OUTLINE