Article Critique: Sociology of Health and Medicine

 Running head: HEALTHCARE
Article Critique: Sociology of Health and Medicine
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HEALTHCARE 2
Article Critique: Sociology of Health and Medicine
Even though the medical profession has every right to monopolize national health policy,
medicine has not contributed greatly to improvement of people’s health in the past. Hart (1985)
argues that people find it very hard to separate their ideas concerning health form their
perception of medicines. This difficulty is brought about by the fact that the medical profession
has successfully influenced most of the people making them believe that their personal health is
dependent on high standards of medical care. The grip of medical profession over political as
well as popular consciousness is so firm that most people perceive medicine and health to be one
and the same thing.
Hart (1985) states that the management of various adverse medical conditions in the
modern times carried out by the national health system need to be effectively evaluated for it to
be effective. However, is very hard to measure the contribution of medicine in the modern levels
of health because successful and unsuccessful medical interventions cannot be separated. In the
past doctors mainly dealt with management of diseases rather than promotion of health in a
positive way. However, promotion of health incorporates both prevention and treatment of
diseases. This century is characterized by remarkable improvement in health care. This
improvement has occurred along with reduction in mortality rate of both the elderly and infants.
Various risks associated with child birth have also declined as a result of decreased family sizes.
Risks of childbirth increase with increase in the number of births (Hart, 1985).
Hart (1985) asserts that diet has also resulted in improvement of overall health of the
people. Nevertheless, medical treatment can do very little to improve adverse health condition of
the people resulting from poor living standards. However, only minimal evidence is available to
support the perception that the contribution of medicine in post war Britain was insignificant. It
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can therefore, be argued that health science as well as services are directed, and the society
investment in health is not well utilized due to the fact that they rest on flawed assumptions
concerning the principles of human health. The capacity to create adverse medical conditions in
an artificial environment does not give an explanation of the ways through which the disease
affects living people in the real world (Hart, 1985). 
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Reference
Hart N. (1985). The sociology of health and medicine. Ormskirk: Causeway.