The Varsity Medical Debate, between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, brings together practitioners and the public, professors, pupils and members of the polis, to facilitate discussion about ethics and policy within healthcare. The motion on privatizing the National Health Service (NHS) was specifically chosen to reflect the growing sentiment in the UK where further discourse upon models of h...

OBJECTIVE This paper explores the use of pharmacoeconomic methods of valuation to health impacts resulting from exposure to poor air quality. In using such methods, interventions that reduce exposure to poor air quality can be directly compared, in terms of value for money (or cost-effectiveness), with competing demands for finite resources, including other public health interventions. DESIGN...

Health policy will be a major issue in Britain’s next general election. The Labour government is committed to a substantial increase in funds for the National Health Service (NHS) and has eliminated tax relief for private health insurance. The Conservative Opposition party favors subsidizing private health insurance, though it has pledged to match the government’s funding increases for the NHS....

BACKGROUND The number of beds in care homes (with and without nurses) in the United Kingdom is three times greater than the number of beds in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. Care homes are predominantly owned by a range of commercial, not-for-profit or charitable providers and their residents have high levels of disability, frailty and co-morbidity. NHS support for care home residents ...

As the National Health Service (NHS) enters a new decade in 2011, it faces one of its toughest financial periods ever. Despite NHS spending being protected from cuts, the equivalent of 0 per cent real growth (or thereabouts after adjusting for inflation) will mean the need to make efficiency savings of around 4 per cent per annum in order to close the estimated £20 billion productivity gap (App...

Recent disclosures of failures of care in the National Health Service (NHS) in England have led to debates about compassion deficits disallowing health professionals to provide high quality responsive care. While the link between high quality care and compassion is often taken for granted, it is less obvious how compassion - often originating in the individual's emotional response - can become ...

Decisions about how to allocate resources in health care are as much about social value judgements as they are about getting the medical facts right. In this context, it is important to compare the social preferences of members of the general public with those of National Health Service (NHS) staff involved in service delivery. A questionnaire eliciting peoples' preferences over maximising life...

INTRODUCTION NHS Direct, a leading telephone healthcare provider worldwide, provided 24/7 health care advice and information to the public in England and Wales (1998-2014). The fundamental aim of this service was to increase accessibility, however, research has suggested a disparity in the utilisation of this service related to ethnicity. This research presents the first national study to deter...

OBJECTIVE To assess suicide and attempted suicide (AS) rates and their characteristics among older residents in Nursing Homes (NHs) of the Veneto region, in the North-East of Italy. METHOD The complete list of NHs was provided by the Regional Department of Health. Structured interviews were completed with NH managers, inquiring about NH, staff and management characteristics, mental health car...

As the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) enters its 67th year and a new parliamentary term, eyes are drawn tow ards its future. The health service has made important strides in the past 15 years—public satisfaction in the NHS has almost doubled, cancer survival is at its highest ever, and the service was ranked the highest performing health system by the Commonwealth Fund. Simultaneously, the ...