ABSTRACT
Previous Chapters in this volume have considered the contribution which sociological analysis, in one or other form, made to understanding various aspects of the National Health Service and British health policy issues more generally during the 1980s. Pace Bryan Turner (1989), it is an impressive record of intellectual achievement which reflects the growing confidence of those who have helped to develop a specialized branch of the main discipline of sociology. Furthermore, as Stacey argues in Chapter 1 of this volume, its applied value for health service practice is acknowledged in the requirement that more than a nodding acquaintance with the sociology of health and healing is now a part of the essential educational preparation of most health-care professionals, including medical practitioners.1
