BMJ : British medical journal
-
The essence of the NHS reforms is that they bring market forces to bear on organisations providing public services, while allowing those organisations more freedom to respond in ways that will improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and appropriateness of their services. The new structural changes to the NHS--a leaner management executive and fewer, slimmer regions--could be used either to strengthen these features of the reforms or frustrate them by allowing ministers and top management to intervene even more at local level and "overmanage" the market. To ensure that the aims of the reforms are not frustrated ministers and the management executive must restrict themselves to laying down clear strategies and then allow purchasers and providers to meet those strategies in their own ways. They also need to ensure that the whole NHS can learn and benefit from local experimentation and devise ways of managing the crises that will inevitably arise; otherwise they might be tempted to become involved in managing the market at too local a level, and the NHS will suffer the worst of both worlds: stifling bureaucracy at the top and parochial self interest locally.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Taping the patella medially: a new treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee joint?
To test the hypothesis that medial taping of the patella reduces the symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee when the patellofemoral joint is affected. ⋯ Patella taping is a simple, safe, cheap way of providing short term pain relief in patients with osteoarthritis of the patellofemoral joint.
-
Most regional health authorities set budgets for fundholding practices according to the amount of care used by the practice population. This article explains why this funding method can only lead to an inequitable allocation of resources between fundholding and non-fundholding practices. Using the experience of North West Thames region, the efforts made to make funding fairer are discussed. ⋯ In the absence of a capitation formula for funding fundholding practices, the paper suggests that health authorities should do much more to investigate the amount of money they spend on non-fundholding practices. Regions could develop and use other methods to set budgets rather than rely on activity recorded by practices. Regions and the Department of Health should resolve urgently if and how far the budgets for fundholders should be compensated for increases in provider prices.