Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) have been developed by NHS and local government leaders in 44 parts of England. The plans offer a chance for health and social care leaders to work together to improve care and manage limited resources. But will they succeed where other initiatives have failed? Despite ...
Although its budget was protected in the 2010 Spending Review, the NHS faces the tightest financial settlement in its history. To avoid reducing quality and making significant cuts to services, it needs to find £20 billion in productivity improvements by 2015. Reductions in the prices paid to hospitals for treating ...
This paper seeks to take a dispassionate look at the potential lessons for the development of economic regulation in health care that can be learned from the experiences of both countries that have already implemented it and those of other market sectors in the United Kingdom. It will be essential ...
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.
Quality has been at the centre of recent NHS policy, and the NHS Next Stage Review highlighted the role of information and measurement in supporting quality improvement, particularly in relation to patient safety, clinical effectiveness and patient experience. It is therefore important to be clear how quality can be measured ...
Since the 1950s, the NHS has been looking at ways of improving care coordination. Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review introduced a new concept, that of the integrated care organisation (ICO). Since then, the Government has begun piloting schemes that offer different models of integrated care. This report, published jointly ...
The aim of this report is to provoke and encourage thinking about the wide range of ways in which patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) data can be used to inform decisions. It draws on Bupa’s example to discuss how providers can use PROMs data to improve clinical performance. It also offers ...
With the Budget set to confirm that the NHS is facing the most significant financial challenge in its history, new analysis from The King’s Fund shows the extent of the productivity gap it needs to address.
Despite the increasing popularity and use of complementary practice, it is difficult to assess its effectiveness. Lack of research - and lack of agreement on research methods - has led to criticism from branches of conventional medicine. The King's Fund set up an advisory group, chaired by Professor Dame Carol ...
Maternity professionals are doing more to ensure safe care is delivered reliably to mothers and babies, but there are still significant barriers impeding their progress. This report is based on the outcome of a series of regional events held with midwives, obstetricians and risk managers as part of the Safer ...
Produced as part of the Point of Care: Seeing the Person in the Patient report. It contains interviews and focus groups, and the transcripts from the recordings which were analysed to produce this final document.
Healthcare-associated infections are a major concern to patients and the public as a result of both high rates of infection across the National Health Service (NHS), and media coverage of outbreaks at individual hospitals. The government has put in place a range of policies designed to reduce healthcare-associated infections in ...
This is the third paper in a series, Kicking Bad Habits, on how people can be encouraged to adopt healthier behaviour. Information-based health campaigns are a major part of the government's health promotion strategy. A £75 million marketing programme has been recently announced to encourage healthy behaviour in children. This ...
Lord Darzi's report, NHS Next Stage Review, attempts to open a new chapter in the story of 'quality' in the English NHS: how to move on from a centrally driven performance management regime - with its focus on driving activity and meeting targets - to a more sophisticated strategy that ...
This is the report of a seminar commissioned by the working party set up by the Department of Health at the end of February 2007 to review the implementation of new arrangements for the regulation of pharmacy in the United Kingdom. The seminar was held at the King's Fund on ...
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 ...
This study explores health care professionals' views about safety in maternity services. It identifies aspects of care that are less safe than they should be, possible ways to improve safety and potential obstacles to achieving these improvements.
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 ...
In recent years, several countries have introduced powers to compel certain people with mental disorders living in the community to engage with services and undergo treatment. This paper explores what happened in the first six months after community-based compulsory treatment orders were introduced in Scotland in October 2005. It looks ...
The reconfiguration of acute and community hospital services in England has recently come to dominate discussions about NHS reform - both locally and nationally - and is provoking a great deal of controversy. This briefing examines the background to the current debate, identifies the main factors driving the changes, explores ...
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 ...
Practice-based commissioning is a policy that aims to give more influence and control to GP practices in England over how money is spent on health care services. At the moment, the bulk of NHS money is allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) who then commission and reimburse hospitals (and other ...
While the 'postcode lottery' of accessing drugs such as Herceptin on the NHS attract media headlines, there has been growing awareness of more fundamental variations in spending by primary care trusts (PCTs), the organisations responsible for purchasing the bulk of NHS care for people living in their catchment areas. This ...
The King's Fund Inquiry into Care Services for Older People in London was established to find out whether the care system operating in 2004 was meeting the needs and preferences of older Londoners who require care and whether there will be sufficient care services of the right design and quality ...
A report commissioned by the King's Fund in December 2004 to provide support to the Enquiry into Care Services in London. The data helps to provide an understanding of housing issues that impact on people's ability to make choices about their care and their way of life.
The demand for care and support in old age is growing nationally, but London faces some particular challenges. For example, although there are fewer older people in inner London, many are likely to need social care as a result of poor health, poverty, poor housing and lack of social support. ...
This is one of a series of case studies exploring how individuals living in London have used the King's Fund Millennium Awards scheme to make a real difference to the health of others in their communities. One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in ...
This guide sets out to show how teams of NHS staff can plan and deliver their own medium-sized design projects in hospitals by making better use of existing resources. It is aimed at a wide audience, including the frontline employees, such as nursing and estates or facilities staff, who may ...
Since 1997, there has been a growing interest in the UK in reducing health inequalities, regenerating disadvantaged neighbourhoods and ending cycles of social exclusion. Large sums of money have been invested in large social programmes, mostly designed to be implemented in partnership with local communities. This policy paper asks to ...
Failure to address avoidable ill health will put huge pressures on the future NHS while deepening health inequalities. This discussion paper asks why, until recently, helping people to stay healthy has had so little emphasis, and what mechanisms and incentives are needed to put wider population health at the heart ...
Improving health and social care is a political priority in the United Kingdom. Boosting the number of health care workers and making better use of their skills are central objectives of the Government's plans for reform. However, recruitment and retention are major problems for the NHS, particularly in inner cities ...
As the government seeks to encourage individuals, organisations and communities to take more responsibility for improving health, the role of the media is considered to be crucial. To find out more about why and how the media deals with public health issues, the King's Fund was asked by the Department ...
Derek Wanless' 2002 report on the future course of NHS spending was immensely important. Not only did it directly inform the Chancellor's spending plans for the NHS for the next five years - which gave the NHS an unprecedented real increase of over 40 per cent by 2007/8 - but ...
The King's Fund, NHS Confederation and Royal College of Nursing produced this briefing that provides key facts and figures on London's health needs, and highlights what they believe are the five most pressing health issues for the Mayor to tackle. The five key messages are: make London a healthy place ...
In 2002, the King's Fund commissioned a major inquiry into the state of the capital's mental health and mental health services and how far they meet the needs of service users. The inquiry set out to: investigate whether mental health care had improved in the capital since the King's Fund ...