The prevalence of chronic disease is rising and many health systems are now seeking to improve the way they respond to the needs of patients with chronic illnesses. The King's Fund and the Commonwealth Fund of New York sponsored a seminar bringing together leading policy-makers, clinicians and academics from England ...
Published in February 2007. and In order to help inform the debate about funding health over the next five to ten years, the King's Fund organised a meeting of senior managers, health economists and policy advisers at Leeds Castle. They discussed not only what level of public funding is feasible and desirable, but also the ...
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 ...
The Mental Health Bill proposes the introduction of supervised community treatment (SCT). Under SCT, some patients who have been compulsorily detained in hospital for treatment will, on discharge, become subject to a community treatment order (CTO) requiring them to comply with certain conditions, including taking their medication. SCT can only ...
The reconfiguration of hospital services in England has been a contentious issue. There have been local public protests against hospital closures and more recently a concerted effort by the government to communicate the clinical case for change. The final report of the NHS Next Stage Review is due for publication ...
This briefing outlines the current system of professional regulation in the UK; describes the criticisms of this system; details the government's proposals for reform; and discusses the potential strengths and weaknesses of the proposed changes [Introduction]
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 2002 the Department of Health announced a fundamental change to the way in which NHS hospitals in England are paid for the work they do. Under this new system - Payment by Results (PbR) - hospitals are reimbursed for the activity they carry out using a tariff of fixed ...