This book considers the social and geographical context in which the National Health Service (NHS) operated during the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that disease and health care systems are the product to a large degree of the wider social and cultural context. It explores the relationship between health, work, poverty, housing, class and culture. examines how resource allocation and social policies are determined by the wider social and cultural context. discusses how the health of the nation, broadly defined should best be managed. As relevant today as when it was originally published, comments on the nature of welfare geography, assesses the impact of integrated approaches on the policy process and points the way forward to geographies rather than a geography of the national health.