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 ...