Materials and methods: The study was based on a mixed method, based partly on real-world data on 546 RRMS patients treated with IFNβ from a previous observational study [1], and partly from the review of cost studies in the published literature. Reverting and fluctuating patients were not considered in this evaluation. EDSS level (measured at 630 months) and average relapse rates were analysed ...

The NHS Care Records Service (CRS) is a major goal of the National Health Service (NHS) Modernisation Programme. It will provide for 24-hour access by clinicians to electronic patient records and the integration of information from previously separate databases, reducing the 'seams' between primary and secondary care, between out-of-hours and ordinary working hours, and ultimately between healt...

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is investing considerable resources in reducing patient waiting times for elective treatment. This paper describes the development of a waiting list model and its use in a simulation to assess management options. Simulation usually assumes that waiting is adequately described by simple queuing disciplines, typically first-in-first-out. However,...

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 ...

RAli 1991;303:1257-8 Admission arrangements for elective surgery often seem archaic and out of step with the public's experience of services outside the National Health Service. In a consumer oriented NHS it would clearly be preferable to offer most patients a mutually agreeable date for admission. We consider here the place of booked admission systems within the NHS and discuss surgeons' own e...

The paper entitled ‘Patient Safety: Whose Vision?’ examined the concept of ‘patient safety’ and attempted to unravel its inherent complexity by examining the perceptions of a range NHS managers and professionals. It drew from a recently completed National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation (NIHR SDO) programme commissioned study, which employed qualitative methods t...

Physician assistants (PAs) have been an integral part of the emergency medicine team in the USA for the past 30 years. This review outlines the reasons why PAs can play a vital role in UK National Health Service (NHS). The experience of American PAs working in one NHS trust are discussed, highlighting the cultural differences in the environment of the emergency departments in the two countries ...

The National Health Service, in its report An organisation with memory, has called for a fundamental rethinking of the way the healthcare system learns from error. The NHS further details its goal to reduce serious medication errors by 40% in a second report entitled Building a safer NHS: improving medication safety. This report calls for a review of paediatric medication delivery systems to as...

1Department of Haematology, Imperial College Healthcare National Health Service (NHS) Trust, Hammersmith and St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 2Department of Haematology, Democritus University of Thrace Medical School, Alexandroupolis, Greece; 3Department of Histopathology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith and St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial Col...

ntroduced in 1948 by the Labor Party, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is based on the principle that everyone is entitled to any kind of medical treatment for any condition, free of charge. The NHS is not insurance-based but is funded almost exclusively from general tax revenues. The aggregate NHS budget is fixed every year, based on the previous year's budget and adjusted for inflation...