This Review is based on the financial rather than the calendar year, and once again attempts to describe and assess the main developments in health policy. The calendar of events aims to describe what has actually happened and also to reflect on some of the wider issues that events within ...
This report examines the work of research ethics committees (RECs) in the United Kingdom. RECs examine proposals for research on human subjects largely within the NHS which throws up a variety of ethical problems. The role of RECs is essentially that of a public watchdog: to try to protect subjects ...
This report presents an appreciation of the significance of Primary Care Development Fund supported schemes for the future of UK primary care generally, and offers a point of common entry into a vital area of national health debate to a range of audiences amongst NHS service providers, users and purchaser ...
Consensus conferences are an increasingly accepted means of synthesising available information and of producing a widely agreed view of the value of medical techniques and advances. In the United Kingdom the King's Fund initiated their use, and developed them beyond their original purely professional focus by holding meetings in public, ...
Medical technology, defined broadly to include drugs, procedures and equipment used singly or in combination, has been of enormous benefit in improving the quality of health care. It has, however, raised many issues about how society can afford to pay for these often expensive developments and about associated ethical problems ...
The second edition of 'The Nation's Health' is an extensively revised and updated assessment of trends in health status and public health policy and practice over the last decade. Its wide-ranging scientific analysis forms the basis for developing 17 health priorities and a clearly defined strategy for improving health over ...
This report is an in-depth, comparative study of the UK plans and US experience of competition in the supply of hospital services. It shows how both competition and regulation policies have been used to contain escalating costs in the US. American experience raises concerns about the impact of competition on ...
The report attempts to review the main issues surrounding the funding and management of units providing dialysis services to people suffering from end-stage renal failure in the UK for the benefit of health service managers, renal physicians and other staff. The objective is to review the experience and information currently ...
The paper summarises recent literature giving an economic perspective on acute hospitals. The issues discussed include: the optimal size of a hospital; the role of the hospital in relation to other suppliers; cost containment and productivity; and the scope for cost reduction.
This report reviews the performance of health services in Sweden, Holland, West Germany, Canada and USA. The main aim has been to identify the countries' studies, to draw parallels with the UK, and to establish the lessons, if any, from abroad. Chapter one traces the origins of the Prime Minister's ...