Since internal markets were created in the NHS, commissioners have purchased health care on behalf of patients and the public from a variety of competing providers. Commissioning was intended to drive improvements in the quality, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of services, but has so far largely failed to achieve these objectives. ...
The King's Fund response to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence consultation on new indicators for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). The King's Fund broadly supports the introduction of each of the new indicators, particularly the six mental illness indicators as there is strong evidence of the ...
Independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) provide services to NHS patients but are owned and run by organisations outside the NHS. This briefing paper explains why ISTCs were introduced, and how they are funded, staffed and regulated. It assesses their impact so far, including the quality of their services and whether ...
General practice has changed considerably over the past decade. Practice size has increased, the workforce has grown and become more diverse, the range of services offered has expanded, and the contracting and financing arrangements for GPs have changed. Current government policy aims to improve access and choice for patients, to ...
In 2008 the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday. This briefing looks at key health care issues over the last 60 years and forward to its 120th birthday. [Introduction]
The contents of this paper come from a review of the literature on compassion, or concepts related to it, and from views and comments arising from the workshop on this topic held in November 2008. The experiences of workshop members were collected on the day and by anonymous written contributions, ...
The government is committed to improving the quality of care, and as part of this commitment they aim to make more information available to the public about the performance of trusts. Providers of NHS services are now required to publish quality accounts – reports for the public on the quality ...
Continuity of care contributes importantly to patient experience, whether it's continuity of a relationship, by seeing the same GP, or management continuity, that coordinates an individual’s care across the wider health care system. However, continuity is not monitored or incentivised in the same way as other aspects of good practice. ... and This paper was commissioned by The King’s Fund to inform the panel of the Inquiry into the Quality of General Practice in England. The views expressed are those of the authors and not of the panel.
In 2009, The King’s Fund and the Burdett Trust for Nursing set out to ‘bring the ward to the board’, emphasising the role of the nurse executive in ensuring that boards are as fully engaged with the clinical quality agenda as they are with financial performance. As leaders of the ...
Securing good care for more people: options for reform proposes new, fairer funding arrangements for adult social care, a review of the current settlement for older people and a long-term staged approach to reform based on political consensus. While demonstrating that the cost of the social care system is set ...