A report provided the latest comparable data on different aspects of the performance of health systems in developed (OECD) countries. For the first time in 2009, the share of national income allocated to health in the United Kingdom exceeded the OECD average. The report warned the coalition government to consider carefully the costs and disruptive effects of large-scale reform to the National Health Service.
Source: Health at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Links: Report | UK note | OECD press release | DH press release | Patients Association press release | RCN press release | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Nov
Campaigners said that in 2008 (the latest year for which data was available) 11,749 more deaths occurred in the United Kingdom than would have if the country had matched the average rates of mortality amenable to healthcare in its European peers. The UK had caught up with its peers at a nearly constant rate between 1981 and 2008. Within that overall time period (since 1999) there had been a huge increase in spending on healthcare: this suggested that money alone had no discernable effect on mortality rates.
Source: John O Connell, Wasting Lives 2011: A statistical analysis of NHS performance since 1981, TaxPayers Alliance
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Oct
An audit report said that the overall financial performance of the National Health Service had been 'good' in 2010-11. Most trusts had made progress in reducing costs: on average, primary care trusts had saved nearly 2 per cent of their gross operating costs, and other trusts had saved over 4 per cent. Most of the savings had been found through improving clinical productivity and reducing workforce costs.
Source: NHS Financial Year 2010/11: A summary of auditors' work, Audit Commission
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2011-Aug
The final report was published of a government-commissioned review of palliative care funding. It said that people nearing the end of their lives should receive free social care paid by the National Health Service. Means-testing would be abolished, so that patients could be promptly discharged from hospital and given access to integrated health and social care.
Source: Tom Hughes-Hallett, Alan Craft, Catherine Davies, Isla Mackay, and Tilde Nielsson, Funding the Right Care and Support for Everyone, Palliative Care Funding Review
Links: Report | Review press release | Dignity in Dying press release | Labour Party press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Jul
A briefing paper examined National Health Service expenditure since 1948; summarized the structure of the NHS and how it was financed; and described how primary care trusts were allocated funding.
Source: Rachael Harker, NHS Funding and Expenditure, Standard Note SN/SG/724, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2011-Jul
A report presented estimates of expenditure on healthcare in the United Kingdom that were consistent with international definitions. Healthcare expenditure as a share of national income reached 9.8 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.6 per cent in 1997.
Source: Uma Qaiser, Expenditure on Healthcare in the UK, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report
Date: 2011-May
A report said that Northern Ireland health and social care services were facing a funding gap of £1 billion. There was a 9 per cent greater need for health and social care services in Northern Ireland than in England.
Source: John Appleby, Rapid Review of Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Funding Needs and the Productivity Challenge: 2011/12-2014/15, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Report | NIE press release
Date: 2011-Mar
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on healthcare spending. It said that sufficient funding had been made available to protect people's access to care and deliver new approaches to improve quality and outcomes.
Source: Government Response to the House of Commons Health Select Committee Report on Public Expenditure, Cm 8007, Department of Health, TSO
Notes: The MPs' report had said that health and social care services would need to make efficiency gains on an 'unprecedented scale' if levels of service were to be maintained and improved.
Date: 2011-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs said that private finance initiative (PFI) projects had delivered many new hospitals and homes that might otherwise not have been delivered. But there was 'no clear evidence' as to whether PFI offered any better or worse value for money than other procurement routes.
Source: PFI in Housing and Hospitals, Fourteenth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 631, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2011-Jan
An article examined emerging government policy on integrating health and social care, and considered some of the implications for joint financing.
Source: Charlotte Goldman and Jane Carrier, 'Joint financing in the new NHS: thinking to the future', Journal of Integrated Care, Volume 18 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jan
