Under the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000), all public bodies, including NHS organisations, are legally obliged to produce a 'race equality scheme' explaining how they plan to eliminate racial discrimination and promote equal opportunities. This paper examines PCTs' race equality schemes to find out what PCTs are doing to address ...
The War on Waiting for Hospital Treatment (Harrison and Appleby 2005) examined the government's record on reducing the number of people on waiting lists for elective care in England, and the time they had to wait. This briefing provides an update on that analysis. The waiting times targets currently in ...
This report reveals that two-thirds of the PCTs responding to the survey had not yet carried out any assessment to identify patients who might need support in making choices about which hospital to go to. A similar proportion had not commissioned any new services to support the introduction of patient ...
This briefing analyses and comments on the key proposals contained in the policy document NHS Autonomy and Accountability, which was released by the Conservative party in June 2007. The document contains the most detailed policy proposals on the NHS released by the main opposition party since the election of David ...
Practice-based commissioning (PBC) is a policy intended to give more decision-making power over NHS resources to general practitioners (GPs), and allow them to design and deliver completely new services or commission others to do so. It has a number of underlying policy objectives including delivering more cost effective and convenient ...
In December 2006, the Department of Health issued its second 'operating framework', The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2007/08, which provides a set of rules and guidance for NHS organisations in England for the year ahead. Aimed primarily at managers and clinical staff, the operating framework for 2007/8 ...
The NHS has moved from an overall net deficit to a net surplus within a year, according to the figures released by the government in June 2007 (Department of Health 2007), reversing a three year trend towards increasingly large gross deficits. The government argues that these latest figures show that ...