The commission on long-term care funding - A roundtable summary
Reforming the system for funding older people's long-term care is one of the biggest public policy challenges confronting the UK.
Health and Social Care
From Feast to Famine: Reforming the NHS for an age of austerity
Over the next decade, an unprecedented funding squeeze and demographic challenges will threaten the existing model of healthcare provision in the UK.
Local Control and Local Variation in the NHS: What do the Public Think?
The move towards greater local autonomy in the NHS offers new possibilities for services that are specifically targeted at local needs.
The Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
The Social Market Foundation brought together a range of experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the new cardiovascular disease screening programme.
60th anniversary of the NHS
At the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the SMF has brought together a range of stakeholders in the health service.
SMF Health Project Background Papers
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.
Finding a nicer way to value health: From hypothetical preferences to real experiences
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.
Putting Patients In Control: The case for extending self-direction into the NHS
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.
Do hospitals need to own their buildings?
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.
The Future of Healthcare
Demand for health services has outstripped the capacity available to meet it since the foundation of the National Health Service (NHS).
Generating Cultural Change in Public Health: Evidence and Effectiveness
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.
Implementing the 10-Year Childcare Strategy
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.
Registering Choice: how primary care should change to meet patient needs
Patients have had the right to choose a GP since 1948. Yet for most of us, this right is little more than hypothetical.
Constraints of the State: the public good and the NHS
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.
Professionally-led regulation in healthcare - just a cosy club?
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.
Choice and Contestability in Primary Care
This paper examines the case for introducing certain kinds of choice into the primary care sector of the NHS.
Whose responsibility is it anyway? Perspectives on public health, the state and the individual
This collection of essays brings together different perspectives on the public health debate, seeking to find the balance between state intervention and individual responsibility.
Supporting Choice
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.
User charges for health
This paper, presented by the SMF Health Commission, reviews the case for user charges in health care.
Defining a core package for the NHS
This paper addresses the challenge of constructing and justifying a core package' of NHS services that would bring significant benefits.
Direct to Patient Communication: Patient Empowerment or NHS Burden?
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.
Introducing Social Insurance to the UK
In this report, the Health Commission reviews the main attractions of social insurance schemes, including greater consumer responsiveness, choice and transparency.
Private Payment for Health: Boone or Bane?
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.
A fairer prescription for NHS charges
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.
