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 ...

BACKGROUND Oesophago-gastric cancer services in England have been extensively reorganised since 2001 to deliver a centralised, specialist-led service. Our aim was to assess how well the National Health Service (NHS) in England met organisational standards for oesophago-gastric cancer care. METHODS Questionnaires that asked about the provision of staging investigations, curative and palliative...

The death of the English National Health Service (NHS) may be slow in coming but that does not mean that it is not the Conservative-led UK government’s desired end state. The government is displaying tactical cunning in achieving its long-term purpose to remould the British state. Powell seeks greater clarity amidst the confusion but the lack of clarity is a principal weapon in the government’s...

This article considers how the 'accidental logics' of political settlements for the English National Health Service (NHS) and the Medicare and Medicaid programmes in the United States have resulted in different institutional arrangements and different implicit social contracts for rationing, which we define to be the denial of health care that is beneficial but is deemed to be too costly. This ...

Essential facts Since 2013, NHS England has commissioned health services for prisoners in England. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says health care in prison plays an important role in identifying health needs, including chronic conditions.

The National Health Service in England considers on the Government's plans to improve quality of health care Commenting on another of its consultation papers, one notary recently gave the British Government " for presentation, minus for deliverability ". 1 Early indications are that the Government's consultation paper on quality in the English National Health Service (NHS) 2 could edge up to a ...

mental health services this is a time of For mental health services this is a time of change. We have seen the publication of change. We have seen the publication of, a blueprint for mental health care throughout England. for mental health care throughout England. By the time this paper appears, the By the time this paper appears, the National Plan will have been published ± National Plan will ...

Is the Child Health / Family Income Gradient Universal? Evidence from England In an influential study Case et al. (2002) documented a positive relationship between family income and child health in the US, with the slope of the gradient being larger for older than younger children. In this paper we explore the child health income gradient in England, which has a comprehensive publicly-funded Na...

OBJECTIVES National Health Service (NHS) Direct provides 24/7 expert telephone-based healthcare information and advice to the public in England. However, limited research has explored the reasons to why calls are made on behalf of young people, as such this study aimed to examine call rate (CR) patterns in younger people to enable a better understanding of the needs of this population in Englan...

Introduction Healthcare Resource Groups [HRG] are the mechanism by which patient activity is classified according to case mix in England. They are the primary funding mechanism for acute care in the English National Health Service [NHS], under the Department of Health's Payment by Results [PbR] national policy. This Department collects annual cost data ('Reference Costs'), and uses this as the ...