Although some of the key planks of the NHS reform programme, such as Payment by Results (PbR) and patient choice, began to take shape from 2003, it is only recently that the Department of Health has begun to publish guidance, aimed at people working within the NHS, that attempts to ...
Despite the rapid growth of funding, in 2005/6 NHS trusts in aggregate overspent by more than £1.2 billion, and the NHS as a whole overspent by more than £500 million. More than 60 trusts incurred significant deficits, and turnaround teams were sent in to find out why. Although until recently ...
Despite initially rejecting the notion of an internal NHS market when it came to power in 1997, the Labour government has reintroduced competition to health services over the last three years. But, as it is the product of a series of separate policy developments, including extending choice of provider, expanding ...
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 ...
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 King's Fund's response to the Department of Health's consultation on options for the future of Payment by Results (PbR), investigating whether ambitions for PbR might be mutually exclusive, and whether, as a single policy lever, PbR can be expected to help achieve any or all of these ambitions.
The pace of change and reform in the NHS has been relentless as government and those who work in the NHS seek ways to improve the service. The King's Fund set up an expert working group to examine how effective the current incentives were in achieving this aim. The group ...