Making Health Policy (Understanding Public Health)

"Making Health Policy is an excellent and easily accessible introduction to its subject and thus of particular interest to all those who seek to influence health policy....this book is highly recommended for all who seek to better understand the policy process and who seek to influence health policy at a sub-national, national, or international level."
Studies in Family Planning

"This book is an excellent choice for an international health policy course- it is engaging, practical and up to date and provides a great core. I highly recommend it!"
Susan D. Foster, Professor of International Health, Boston University School of Public Health

"May I congratulate Nicholas Mays, Kent Buse and Gill Walt on their excellent health policy book which we are finding most useful in our health policy and management course here at the Karolinska and which I will also use in the masters in health management course in Bergen"
Dr John Øvretveit, Director of Research, The Karolinska Institute Medical Management Centre, Stockholm, and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Bergen University Faculty of Medicine, Norway.

Surprisingly little guidance is available to public health practitioners who wish to understand how issues get onto policy agendas, how policy makers treat evidence and why some policy initiatives are implemented while others languish. This book views power and process as integral to understanding policy and focuses on the three key elements in policy making: the context, the actors and the processes. It is a guide for those who wish to improve their skills in navigating and managing the health policy process, irrespective of the health issue or setting.

The book examines:

• Policy analysis
• Power
• Private and public sectors
• Policy makers
• Policy implementation
• Research and policy

Kent Buse was Senior Lecturer in Health Policy, Nick Mays is Professor of Health Policy and Gill Walt is Professor of International Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.