EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY 3 OCTOBER 2006

London's medical history is brought to life in a new book

The history of healthcare is complex, confusing and contested, writes Nick Black in a new book just published by Royal Society of Medicine Press.

Walking London’s Medical History tells the story of how health services developed across the city. With a foreword by acclaimed author Peter Ackroyd, the book takes readers on a series of walks across central London and provides a guide to the history of medicine and health care from medieval times to the present day.

Professor Black said he wrote the book to help preserve London’s medical heritage:

“Walking London’s Medical History allows the reader to understand the development of health care through the ages and why health services developed the way they did.”

“Each walk helps to preserve London’s heritage as former health care buildings are increasingly converted into hotels, offices, homes and shops, with public knowledge of their original function in danger of being lost,”

he said.

Time Out’s London for Londoners Editor, Tom Lamont says:

“With teasing asides about the scandals and intrigues of London’s medical history alongside his more formal accounts, Black reveals a little known aspect of the capital’s past in a manner both informative and fun, accessible whether you have a medical background or not. Walks you’ll actually want to go on.”

Containing maps and illustrations of over 120 buildings, Walking London’s Medical History examines key themes including competition between the Church, Crown and City for control; changing fortunes of particular districts such as the lost hospitals of St Luke's; and the transformation of health care trades into professions.

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Notes

Nick Black is Professor of Health Services Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is one of the leading academics in the UK on health services, having published several books and over 200 articles in medical journals.

Walking London’s Medical History by Nick Black is published by the Royal Society of Medicine Press. It is available in all good bookstores and online at www.rsmpress.co.uk and Amazon.

Walking London’s Medical History will be launched on 3 October 2006 at The Royal Society of Medicine, London.

RRP: £14.95, ISBN: 1-85315-619-1, 224pp, Paperback

Review copies are available on request.