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The doctors’ trade union, the British Medical Association, fought fiercely against the introduction of the National Health Service. But once the NHS became inescapable, they emerged from the last ditch to make it work. Jeremy Lee-Potter’s A Damn Bad Business (Gollancz, £16.99, ISBN 0 575 06310 6), with its significant subtitle, “The NHS deformed”, is a slashing attack on the contemporary service, with its management-heavy and accountancy-led structure. Not denying that a rejuvenated NHS would need far more money, Lee-Potter suggests practical improvements as well as attacking the present set-up. This is a passionately argued case by a former BMA chairman.