Lansley's NHS "reforms"

Stormy weather for Labour's NHS reforms.

Evaluating the Labour Government's English NHS health system reforms: the 2008 Darzi reforms.

Starting in 2002, the UK Labour Government of 1997-2010 introduced a series of changes to the National Health Service (NHS) in England designed to increase patients' choices of the place of elective hospital care and encourage competition among public and private providers of elective hospital services for NHS-funded patients. In 2006, the Department of Health initiated the Health Reform Evalua...

For-profit companies will strip NHS assets under proposed reforms.

The unfolding cautionary tale of Southern Cross illustrates the fundamental problems with the outsourcing of public services to corporate bodies (BMJ 2011;342:d3535, doi:10.1136/bmj. d3535). Its crisis originated when it was bought by private equity firms, which buy companies, like Southern Cross, that own unmortgaged land and buildings. After selling, leasing back, or borrowing against these a...

Extracontractual referrals in first three months of NHS reforms.

OBJECTIVE To describe the extracontractual referrals of residents of Merton and Sutton Health Authority during the first three months of the NHS reforms in terms of the nature of the referral (elective or emergency), the specialty referred to, and the source of and reason for referral. DESIGN Descriptive analysis of all extracontractual referrals submitted to the health authority between 1 Ap...

NHS reforms in England: the implications for chemotherapy commissioning

For oncology, one of the biggest effects of the reforms to the National Health Service (NHS) in England has been the designation of systemic anticancer treatments (other than hormonal agents) as a specialised service. This means that all decisions regarding the commissioning of chemotherapy are made at the national level via NHS England (NHSE), under expert guidance from the Chemotherapy Clinic...