Is bigger better for primary care groups and trusts? Small can be beautiful and effective.

Is bigger better for primary care groups and trusts?

A cost-effectiveness analysis of domestic radon remediation in four primary care trusts located in Northamptonshire, UK.

The paper considers how primary care trusts (PCTs), which are relatively new organisations in the UK health service, might respond to the health hazards associated with radon in domestic properties. To this end, the cost-effectiveness of radon remediation programmes in four primary care trusts is calculated and compared with those of other interventions that can avert and treat lung cancer. The...

Weight of Risk Factors for Adjusting Capitation in Primary Health Care: A Systematic Review

Background: Capitation payment is the best-known strategy for paying providers in primary health care. Since health care needs and personal characteristics play an essential role in health care utilization and resource spending, there is a growing tendency on risk adjustment models among health researchers.  The objective of this systematic review was to examine the weights used for risk adjust...

Special Measures for Quality and Challenged Providers: Study Protocol for Evaluating the Impact of Improvement Interventions in NHS Trusts

Background Healthcare organisations in England rated as inadequate in terms of leadership and one other domain enter the Special Measures for Quality (SMQ) regime to receive increased support and oversight. There is also a ‘watch list’ of challenged National Health Service (NHS) providers at risk of going into SMQ that receive support. There is limited knowledge about whether the interven...

The long term importance of English primary care groups for integration in primary health care and deinstitutionalisation of hospital care

PURPOSE This article reviews the impact of successive experiments in the development of primary care organisations in England and assesses the long-term importance of English primary care groups for the integration of health and community and health and social care and the deinstitutionalisation of hospital care. THEORY Governments in a number of Western countries are attempting to improve th...