Researchers examined the response of English National Health Service hospitals to waiting-time targets. It was found that targets led to a fall in waiting times without apparent reductions in other aspects of patient care.
Source: Carol Propper, Matt Sutton, Carolyn Whitnall and Frank Windmeijer, Incentives and Targets in Hospital Care: Evidence from a natural experiment, Working Paper 08/205, Centre for Market and Public Organisation/University of Bristol (0117 954 6943)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2008-Oct
The healthcare inspectorate said that the majority of urgent and emergency care services across England were performing well: but it called for further improvements.
Source: Not Just a Matter of Time: A review of urgent and emergency care services in England, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200)
Links: Report | CHAI press release | DH press release | NHS Confederation press release | RCN press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Sep
A report provided a profile of community hospitals in England in 1998 and 2008, demonstrating changes over the 10-year period. There had been an overall loss of classic community hospitals with beds, and an increase in diversification of local community facilities. Redesignated 'tracked' community hospitals had become mainly community care resource centres, as they developed ambulatory care services and no longer had beds. A number had focused purely on intermediate care and rehabilitation, and a few had formed partnerships with care homes.
Source: Profiling Community Hospitals in England 1998-2008, Community Hospitals Association (01460 55951)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Aug
The healthcare inspectorate said that most patients staying overnight in hospital in England were happy with their care: 9 in 10 said their care was good, very good, or excellent. But problems were reported with the quality of food, information on treatment, and the use of mixed-sex facilities.
Source: National NHS Patient Survey Programme: Survey of Adult Inpatients in the NHS 2007, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200)
Links: Report | CHAI press release | Help the Aged press release | NHS Confederation press release | BMA press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-May
An article examined the cost of using private finance to build hospitals under the 'private finance initiative' (PFI). Hospital trusts' annual payments to their private sector partners were higher than expected, and were taking 11 per cent of their budget. The additional cost of private over public finance for the first 12 hospitals was about £60 million a year, which was 20-25 per cent of the trusts' income. PFI charges created budget inflexibilities and were increasing the pressure on the National Health Service to cut their largest cost – the jobs, working conditions, and pay of their staff.
Source: Jean Shaoul, Anne Stafford and Pam Stapleton, 'The cost of using private finance to build, finance and operate hospitals', Public Money and Management, Volume 28 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
An article examined the impact of competition on healthcare standards, in an environment with limited quality signals in which hospitals competed mainly on price. Hospitals in competitive markets reduced unmeasured and unobserved quality in order to improve measured and observed waiting times.
Source: Carol Propper, Simon Burgess and Denise Gossage, 'Competition and quality: evidence from the NHS internal market 1991-9', Economic Journal, Volume 118 Issue 525
Date: 2008-Jan
