This study developed a method for measuring change in socio-economic equity in health care utilisation using small-area level administrative data. Our method provides more detailed information on utilisation than survey data but only examines socio-economic differences between neighbourhoods rather than individuals. The context was the English NHS from 2001 to 2008, a period of accelerated expe...

The dialysis modality mix in China is quite different from Hong Kong (HK). A recent article [1] about global differences in dialysis modality mix showed interesting differences in peritoneal dialysis (PD) prevalence in 36 countries (reported 2003–05) but omitted China and HK in its report. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita on healthcare and the reimbursement rate of renal services wer...

The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is best known in primary care for its production since 2001 of evidence-based clinical guidelines covering a wide range of clinical conditions. 1 More recently, NICE guidelines have become further integrated into UK primary care through their development into performance measures for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) payme...

OBJECTIVE We investigate whether physicians in secondary care in the English NHS receive adequate training to recognise and appropriately refer for services those persons suspected to be victims of human trafficking. DESIGN Freedom of Information requests were sent to the 105 England's NHS Trusts delivering acute care in England. SETTING NHS Trusts providing secondary care in England. PAR...

OBJECTIVES To examine whether patient satisfaction with nursing care in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England is associated with the proportion of non-UK educated nurses providing care. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis using data from the 2010 NHS Adult Inpatient Survey merged with data from nurse and hospital administrator surveys. Logistic regression models with corrections for ...

The article takes its cue from models of quantitative research applied to complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) and pinpoints some innovative features in the case at issue (Portugal). It goes on to outline new research scenarios moving beyond the either biomedical or CAM framework.

The National Health Service (NHS) is facing financial constraints and thus there is considerable interest in ensuring the shortest but optimal hospital stays possible. The aim of this study was to investigate patterns of postoperative length of stay (LOS) stay across the English NHS and to identify factors that significantly influence both optimal and prolonged LOS.Data were obtained from the N...

The Scots and the English and Welsh are producing national guidance on NHS practice in different ways. Two apparently competing national agencies have already been established in Scotland—the Health Technology Board for Scotland and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). Yet another one is in the pipeline—the Scottish Medicines Consortium. In England and Wales there is one agen...