Reforming the system for funding older people’s long-term care is one of the biggest public policy challenges confronting the UK. Following the 2010 general election, the new Coalition Government announced in its Programme for Government document that it would: “establish a commission on long-term care, to report within a year.
This short brief summarises a roundtable convened by the Social Market Foundation to draw lessons for the new body from previous commissions on both long-term care funding and other policy challenges. Read more...
Over the next decade, an unprecedented funding squeeze and demographic challenges will threaten the existing model of healthcare provision in the UK. Difficult choices will need to be made if we are not to se a return to rationing by waiting list, crumbling infrastructure and a decline in the quality of care – all of which would hit the poor and the sick hardest. This report concludes that the NHS must focus on two activities: securing better value for money, and constraining the inexorable rise in demand for care.
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The move towards greater local autonomy in the NHS offers new possibilities for services that are specifically targeted at local needs. Locally varied services will be necessary to make the health service more effective and efficient in the years ahead. But there are fears that greater local spending and decision-making power will undermine the national character of the NHS, amid public concern about ‘postcode lotteries’. This study presents the findings of a piece of original research carried out in conjunction with Ipsos MORI examining public views about variation in the NHS. Read more...
The Social Market Foundation brought together a range of experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the new cardiovascular disease screening programme. The discussion was led by Professor Roger Boyle, the National Director for Heart Disease. This report includes Professor Boyle's remarks, and a thematic account of the ensuing discussion.
These background papers provide an extensive review of the literature on different aspects of health policy – from the implications of ageing to the reformed provider market in the NHS. Intended as an introduction for the general reader these papers also identify the key challenges facing the health system and suggest areas for further research. The SMF Health Project will be building on these background papers and publishing a series of reports on key aspects of health policy before a final publication in 2009. Read more...
At the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the SMF has brought together a range of stakeholders in the health service Read more...
Demand for health services has outstripped the capacity available to meet it since the foundation of the National Health Service (NHS). Each new generation of politicians discovers this afresh – although their response is conditioned by their own particular ideological standpoint. However, in reality, the increase in funding has only allowed the NHS to ‘catch up’, in Wanless’ phrase, raising health spending to a level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) similar to that of our European neighbours. Read more...
Following recent controversies over the availability of expensive drugs on the NHS, NICE’s work in allocating the NHS’s spending on medical treatments is coming under increasing scrutiny. In this essay, Professor Paul Dolan challenges the methodology used by NICE to determine the cost-effectiveness of different treatments. Read more...
Putting patients In Control argues that it is time to end the institutional divide between health and social care that currently prevents self-direction being introduced into the NHS. It proposes the use of individual budgets for patients with long-term chronic conditions, such as mental illness and diabetes. This would give patients greater choice of treatment and allow them to develop their own package of care, mixing clinical and alternative therapies to meet their individual needs. Read more...
General Health Co-operative (GHC) in Seattle has sold its last hospital. In future GHC will provide healthcare to over 600,000 people by using hospitals belonging to other organisations. Outside healthcare this would not be seen as a radical idea; airlines often do not own the aircraft they use and department stores lease space to other retailers. But in hospital care the buildings and the history associated with them have been seen as inseparable from the service. Read more...
This publication, the result of a conference convened by the Social Market Foundation in June 2006, brings together some of the most expert and considered voices in the field to explore the contentious issues around the major themes dominating the health policy debate. Read more...
In 2005, the Social Market Foundation, in partnership with Bright Horizons Family Solutions, hosted two seminars exploring the implications of the government’s 10 Year Strategy for childcare in the UK. This publication summarises the discussions which took place, representing an important contribution to the ongoing discussions around the Strategy. Read more...
This report outlines the current pattern of co-payment in the UK and debates whether there is a case for introducing or extending co-payment into new areas of public service provision. It considers the economic rationale and the principles that should underpin the use of co-payment in UK public services, in particular the impact on equity. Read more...
This paper examines the case for introducing certain kinds of choice into the primary care sector of the NHS. Read more...
In this essay, published in January 2005, Secretary of State for Health Dr John Reid MP sets out the case for extending patient choice within the NHS. Read more...
This publication reviews the arguments presented by experts during a seminar held by the SMF in October 2004 on the promotion of public choice amongst those with special needs or limited capabilities. Read more...
Patients have had the right to choose a GP since 1948. Yet for most of us, this right is little more than hypothetical. In this report, Professor Paul Corrigan, former Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Health, explains why our primary care sector has reached this point and what reforms the Government should implement to address the problem. Read more...
Written in the light of the fifth report of the Shipman enquiry, the essays tackle the question of whether the regulatory bodies for health care professionals have been reformed sufficiently or whether they still require a lot of change before they generate trust and confidence. Read more...
In this report, the Health Commission reviews the main attractions of social insurance schemes, including greater consumer responsiveness, choice and transparency. Read more...
This collection of essays brings together different perspectives on the public health debate, seeking to find the balance between state intervention and individual responsibility. Read more...
This paper, presented by the SMF Health Commission, reviews the case for user charges in health care. Read more...
This paper addresses the challenge of constructing and justifying a ‘core package’ of NHS services that would bring significant benefits. Read more...
This report argues that the analysis of the role private payments could play in UK health care has often been hindered by over-simplistic ideological views. Read more...
This collection of essays puts forward the arguments for and against relaxing the rules on direct to patient communication, with contributions from David Colin-Thome, Nicholas Bosanquet and Angela Coulter. Read more...
This publication explores user charges, revealing a system lacking all logic. It argues that the current cluster of systems perpetuates injustice, distorts medical priorities and hinders access to vital treatment. Read more...