Medical Work

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores the nature of medical work through the lens of a case study of the history of the medical profession, focusing specifically on the labour of doctors. It begins with an analysis of the emergence of the medical profession and its differentiation from more traditional forms of healthcare. It goes on to explore the role of the Medical Registration Act in providing a basis for the professionalization of medicine, and the contribution which the founding of the NHS in 1946 made to this process. It shows the impact on medical work of the rise of human rights narratives, and how these narratives have been harnessed by neoliberal governments with a view to facilitating drives to depress costs. While it shows that the integration of medical labour within processes of capital accumulation has necessarily constrained the capacity for the former to respond to the problem of ill health, it suggests that recent changes in the legal framework governing the NHS, and the work of the medical profession, have exacerbated this problem. This is so, not least because it has exposed the medical profession to social and economic risks, doing so in a way that has the potential to undermine the autonomy that is integral to their work, and to fostering public trust.