The NHS was founded as a brave experiment in healthcare, and for over seventy years has been a remarkable success. Inevitably, sometimes things go wrong, and LIFELINE delves into stories of fake doctors, forged wills and disappearing postmortems. It analyses how patient safety can be neglected, and describes how malicious managers, inept regulators and naïve politicians sometimes find it easier to hide the truth or blame innocent scapegoats. This is a book which should be read by every medical student, doctor and nurse, and indeed everyone who wants the NHS to be a service that we can all be proud of. Some of what you read will make you laugh, some will make you cry and some will make you very angry indeed, but you won't be bored. The author, Dr Barry Monk, has been a consultant for over thirty years. Foreword by Professor Harold Ellis, retired Professor of Surgery.