The histories of cancer policies and cancer care in the Netherlands and in England from c 1970, and their potential to inform policy debates. (360G-Wellcome-089715_Z_09_Z)

The histories of cancer policy and cancer services in the Netherlands and in England will be explored for the period from 1970 to 2009, including palliative care, and using interviews as well as written sources. My preliminary research suggested that policies on cancer care in these countries show sufficient commonalities and differences to allow for insightful comparisons; by including the rather different dynamics of palliative services, I hope to gain further insights. I will use the secondary literature to set the two national histories in a wide international context. I will explore how cancer care was changed by different kinds of demands (political, professional and directly from patients) and how the systems compared in terms of effectiveness and responsiveness. The differences made by 'policy' have to be measured against estimates of the change that would have happened anyway, and for this purpose studies across time, and across countries may be particularly rewarding. I will develop my findings to show more generally how histories can inform health care policy. The thesis will contribute to the histories of health services and cancer care; it will aim to encourage historical evaluation of policy; it will try to show both how policy makers could have learned from history, and what they might learn from good history now.