...This chapter considers key aspects of the role of taxation in health and social care in the UK. It examines the connection between taxation-based funding and universal access to NHS services, and public opinion regarding tax increases for higher funding. It contrasts the more stable and highly...

...NHS governance is often presented as a story of markets and hierarchies or centralisation and decentralisation. This chapter argues that it is a history of steadily increasing claims to authority over the practise of healthcare, as seen in the incessant deployment of tools that might look like...

...Since its inception NHS hospital management has been subject to the ‘bedpan doctrine’. Although no-one seems certain exactly when, Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, is often credited with saying that ‘If a bedpan is dropped on a hospital floor in Tredegar, I want the noise to reverberate...

...This chapter explores OECD data to comparatively locate the NHS in relation to a range of key measures in terms of its position today, its position before the COVID-19 pandemic, and then at two other time points. It concludes that the NHS rates comparatively strongly on equity, but that its...

...This chapter identifies some of the issues and problems that are associated with the attempts to measure the outputs of the National Health Service (NHS). This has become an increasingly pressing political priority due to the wish to demonstrate the benefits that result from substantial additional...

... to address. Coalition government commissioning Department of Health DH general practitioners GPs health inequalities multidisciplinary public health National Health Service NHS White Paper 2010 Department of Health Primary Care Trusts PCTs Area Teams ATs Clinical Commissioning Groups CCGs health...

... inevitably led to significant financial challenges and to social care leaders struggling to make ends meet. All this comes on the back of new responsibilities under the Care Act, changing demographics and policy pressures to develop more personalised services and to integrate care more fully with the NHS...

...; inefficiencies in the use of resources; problems in accessing services; inadequate coordination; and public health challenges. This chapter outlines coalition government policy and its record on health and the NHS, including the controversial reforms, funding, coordination and integration, and the relationship...

...This chapter contains an analysis of the development of the NHS under the Coalition Government. While some argue that under the Coalition Government the UK approaches the end of the NHS, the analysis shows that the reforms initiated by the Coalition Government have diverging directions...

...This chapter introduces the political focus on the productivity of the NHS. Productivity is a conceptually simple construct, relating the amount of output produced to the amount of inputs used in the production process. Productivity growth can also be calculated by comparing the change in outputs...

...This chapter examines the rhetoric of government and opposition in the Parliamentary debate over the 2010 NHS White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence.’ It treats the debate as a process of deliberative argument in which Secretary of State Andrew Lansley justifies his reorganisation and explores...

...Despite repeated reorganisations, the NHS continues to be under severe pressure as it faces profound challenges in terms of growing patient demand, shrinking resources and a rise in external competition. Managing the healthcare workforce was a central focus for Coalition government reforms...

...This chapter introduces the prevalence of NHS reforms since its inception and the lack of discussion and evaluation of these reforms following their implementation. The chapter offers a brief summary of the Coalition government health reforms, and introduces the concept of ‘reform fatigue...

...This chapter introduces some of the challenges the NHS faced over the five years of Coalition government. ‘The Nicholson Challenge’ arose following the 2008 global economic crisis. The NHS was faced with making £20 billion of efficiency savings over the next 4 years from 2011/12 to 2014/15...

... in terms of cost-minimisation, cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit and cost-utility. The chapter then considers the various rationing strategies by which the NHS can try to reduce expenditure, the use of QALYs to compare the cost-effectiveness of health promotion projects, and conjoint analysis. It also...

..., post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and personality disorders. It then considers the NHS policy on mental health; the mental health promotion strategies in the UK, including the Scottish Health Survey of 2016, the All Wales Mental Health Promotion Network, and the Mental Health Foundation...

... economic crisis welfare state Italy NHS The Italian health system is distinguished by the fact that it has changed its welfare model fully four times in its 150 years of operation. From being ‘residual’ in the liberal age (1861–1921), it shifted to an ‘authoritarian meritocratic’ form in the fascist...

... to expectations and are then criticised for having been ‘oversold’. It discusses the predominant approach of NHS reform which focuses on centralised targets, together with a growing commercialisation of health services. comparative view of health systems convergence in health systems globalisation...

...This chapter examines the evolution of health care reform in Great Britain and the three phases it has passed through. It discusses the successive and almost continuous reform of the NHS in the mid-1970s which provide a good case study of health care reorganisation. It suggests that the reality...

...Health care systems across the world are in a state of permanent revolution as they struggle to cope with multiple pressures arising from changing demography, new technologies and limited resources. Focusing on the British NHS, this book looks at how it has coped with such pressures over its 60...