Clinical standards in the reformed NHS.

Clinical standards in the reformed NHS.

Unfettered by such restraining influences as a clear view of the end results, in 1991 the government of the UK made a fundamental change to the administration of its 43 year old NHS. Previous reorganisations had merely tinkered with the machinery for cascading funds from the chancellor of the exchequer to the NHS foot soldiers. This time there was a revolutionary idea at the core. Right down to...

Monitoring and standards in the NHS: (2) standards.

NICE quality standards: improving healthcare quality in the English NHS?

The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is best known in primary care for its production since 2001 of evidence-based clinical guidelines covering a wide range of clinical conditions. 1 More recently, NICE guidelines have become further integrated into UK primary care through their development into performance measures for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) payme...

Clinical Skills Centers Standards

Introduction. Setting up “Clinical Skills Labs” has been started in some Iranian medical universities since five years ago. In an educational workshop for Clinical Skills Labs managers in January 2001, many managers stated that if there were standards for these centers it would help them define the necessities of the center. These standards would also make the basis for internal and external ev...

Morality and Markets in the NHS

Since its establishment in 1948, the history of the National Health Service (NHS) has been characterized by organisational turbulence and system reform. At the same time, progress in science, medicine and technology throughout the western world have revolutionized the delivery of healthcare. The NHS has become a much loved, if much critiqued, national treasure. It is against this backdrop that ...