Bunting insists that we need to expand our impoverished language of care, discussing the etymology of ‘care’ itself and related keywords between chapters—‘empathy’, ‘kindness’, ‘compassion’, ‘pity’, ‘dependence’, ‘suffering’—aware how glibly these are often invoked: ‘In a noisy culture which accords great significance to talking, the wordlessness of small actions can easily be overlooked. A further dimension of the health and social care crisis Bunting explores in her book relates to its commercialisation. It is slow paced – unsurprisingly considering the scope and wight of the material – but still gripping. Finally, there is a selection of book reviews such as Branko Milanovic's review of Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea by Darrin M. Nurses are aware that they are involved in a performance but know the giving of care must never appear routine.

The alarm clock gives us a reason to get up in the morning, the expectations of colleagues or clients give us a reason to do our jobs well, the misery in developing countries .Numbed as we are by headlines about over-stretched nurses and overwhelming paperwork, it takes an outside eye to make us realise that our current set-up is strange but not inevitable. The state responds by tightening the criteria for the provision of care, and providers by holding down costs and cutting wages. And they provide the vast bulk of the army of healthcare workers in the NHS (80 per cent) and social-care workers (82 per cent) for the long-term sick, disabled and frail elderly. As so many aspects of our lives become automated, love and care is one that will continue to need humanity to deliver it and all those who work in it deserve our support. I particularly enjoyed the section at the end of each chapter, where Bunting explores our changing understanding of the word “care” by offering definitions of associated words and examining their historical context.

Even on the most basic healthcare insurance, after the birth of my child I spent five days in hospital recovering from an emergency C-section, which is considered normal here but contrasts to three to four days in the UK. View image in fullscreen Sculptor Luke Perry’s medical worker, installed at a park near Birmingham, a tribute to care workers during the coronavirus pandemic. In the process, Bunting highlights the overwhelming impediments faced at every level by carers and those in need, resulting in an unprecedented crisis of care. An experienced journalist, Bunting has an unerring knack for finding the details and human faces that make up the bigger story. In one chapter, Bunting arrives at the offices of a voluntary-sector organization which supports families with a disabled child.It has left more people finally wondering why care itself has been for so long undervalued—paid or unpaid—despite being one of the most valuable of all forms of human labour.

A deeply caring man, he gets patients with terminal cancer to smile and he washes the hair of the dead.No one has found a way to measure continuity of care or its value, but we know it reduces hospital admissions. Meanwhile, with community resources and respite leave disappearing, home carers also find it ever harder to manage, whoever they are nurturing. Labours of Love arose from five years of travel to healthcare settings across the UK: care homes for the elderly and disabled, hospitals, local doctors’ surgeries, and palliative care units. It leads to her extraordinary caricature: ‘feminism has forged ahead on many fronts … but a recognition and valuing of care is noticeably absent’. This book made me feel alternately happy and sad - the idea of 'care' is bandied about so lightly as if it is easy to do, but Bunting makes clear that it is absolutely a skilled and technical job - just one that is undervalued and easy to misunderstand.

After trying her best to cope, a frankly disillusioned graduate, felt obliterated by her job in high-end homes. This reflects Bunting’s interview with Tom, a GP working at a practice in a poor area that still prioritises building relationships with patients.

Meanwhile, the commercial world mendaciously incorporates affirmations of ‘care’ and ‘caring’ when marketing or delivering its wares, thereby eviscerating the substance of care. The business of nursing is increasingly credentialed and technical with less time for the human aspects of care, which are devolved to auxiliary workers. Forget the Thursday-night clapping and rainbows in the windows: the NHS is perennially underfunded and its staff undervalued, by conservative governments as well as by people who rely on it.