In this report, we focus on what needs to be done to strengthen commissioning in the NHS, through an analysis of the problems with current commissioning arrangements. We begin by examining what is meant by ‘commissioning’ in the English NHS.
General practitioners make over 9 million referrals each year, triggering many billions of pounds of expenditure. There is also significant variation in the quality and rate of referral between GPs and GP practices. As the NHS faces a prospective funding gap of £14-£20 billion and GPs take the lead for ...
This assessment tool was developed in collaboration with NHS trusts participating in The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) programme. This phase of the EHE programme was funded by the Department of Health to support the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy. The assessment tool is informed by research ... and Free registration required to access this tool.
In November 2011, The King’s Fund invited academics, practitioners, policy-makers and representatives from patient and voluntary organisations to discuss the care of very old frail people with complex health problems. Mindful of the work of others (NHS Confederation, the Local Government Association and Age UK 2012; The Mid Staffordshire NHS ...
This report calls for all NHS organisations to commit to working more closely with patients to meet the requirements of a new relationship with patients and communities outlined in the NHS five year forward view. The paper looks at what can be achieved by NHS professionals working with patients and ...
This paper is designed as a high-level resource and reference guide for local service leaders who want to improve care for older people. Within each component of care we describe the goal that the system should aim for and then present key evidence about what we know can work, selected ...
The creation of the £3.8 billion Better Care Fund offers a real opportunity to lay the foundations for a much more integrated system of health and care. This paper summarises the evidence from work by The King’s Fund and other research about which
approaches are likely to offer commissioners maximum ...
Consistent, reliable high-quality care is what all patients want and health workers aim to provide. However, the reality for most patients, particularly those in acute hospitals, often falls far short of the ideal. In the context of acute care, the risks of fragmentation and breakdown in care co-ordination are high, ...
This paper was commissioned by The King’s Fund to inform the Inquiry panel. The views expressed are those of the authors and not of the panel. and Better management of people with long-term conditions has been a key priority of the NHS since the early 1990s. At that time it was recognised that if people with long-term conditions were managed effectively in the community, they should remain relatively stable and enjoy a quality of life free from ...