This long-awaited new edition provides a readable, comprehensive andaccessible account of the law governing health care in England and Wales. Incontrast to other texts, it examines the full range of health care but notmerely its medical context. The narrative is clear and succinct with fullreferences to legal sources to meet the needs of law students and practitioners.However, excessive use of legal jargon is avoided ensuring that the law is alsoaccessible to health care professionals. The text sets out the law on publichealth, the NHS, the health professions, clinical negligence litigation,patients' rights, and research and health care ethics.Major developments since 1997 have led to substantial revisions throughout thebook, which now takes account of such organisations as: the National Institutefor Clinical Excellence and the Commission for Health Improvement. ProfessorMontgomery addresses the legal and regulatory responses to a series of'scandals' (Bristol babies, Alder Hey etc); the development of medicaltechniques and regulatory bodies; the impact of the Human Rights Act and theData Protection Act; the Blair administration and NHS reforms.