Racism in medicine: an agenda for change. Edited by Naaz Coker. King’s Fund Publishing, London.

The founding of the NHS in Britain in l948 was based on socio-political forces which recognized that equity in access to prevention and treatment of ill health was the right of all its citizens. It reflect-ed the culmination of the idealism and humanity of a people who had led and won a hard-fought global struggle against undemocra-tic and racist regimes. No doubt the people of Britain were also at this time coming to terms with the inevitability of the loss of their Empire. It is doubtful, however, if anyone foresaw the conse-quences of the gravitational pull of the NHS as a major public service employer on Britain’s former colonial subjects, making it an arena where racism would become an issue. This book is a collection of papers documenting the evidence that at the close of the twentieth century the NHS was experiencing attitudes and practices stemming from racism, and offers an agenda for action to eliminate the consequential discrimination that puts immigran