Side Effects

We all know that medical treatments, designed to help or cure, can have side effects. The same goes for healthcare policy. A failure to consider the possible unintended consequences of good intentions has confounded the history of health and care in the UK. And this is complicated by a lack of clarity as to what we really hope to achieve. All too often, stated aspirations fail to be matched by appropriate actions. We are in a mess. Everyone knows we are in a mess.

David Haslam’s Side Effects is a book that takes a fresh and challenging look at why healthcare has lost its way, and how we can fix it. We know we can’t go on like this, and yet frank, honest, forthright debate has been all too lacking.

We’re delighted that David has agreed to us publishing excerpts from his book to help widen the debate.

When Rachel Clarke chose Side Effects to be the Observer book of the week, she described it as “the real deal, a superb analysis of the thorny, intractable, endlessly sidestepped issues that bedevil 21st-century healthcare.”

• Download Excerpts from Side Effects, by David Haslam
• Read David Haslam on the unintended side effects of healthcare spending decisions

If a download isn’t your thing and you would prefer to get a free hard copy of the Side Effects booklet, send an email to hello@kscopehealth.org.uk with your address and we’ll pop it in the post to you.

Fresh Conversation event

We also hosted a free Fresh Conversation on the topic. David Haslam kicked off the conversation, which was held on  in the beautiful Bedouin tent at St Ethelburga’s, in the City of London.