Tomlinson: a social policy perspective (Part 1).

This article is the first of two which explore the Report of the Inquiry into London's Health Service, Medical Education And Research (1) (the Tomlinson Report), and consider its origins and implications from a social policy perspective. In this article, the Tomlinson Report will be placed within its historical context and the key events leading up to its commissioning and publication examined. To facilitate the analysis, a 'policy as process model' will be adopted throughout to articulate and emphasise the relationships between the phenomena involved (2). Part two appears next week.