NHS
Not so NICE: Warning of drug industry influence on NHS
No-one likes to talk about rationing health services, especially politicians. Yet rationing decisions are necessary in all health systems without limitless budgets, since demand will always exceed supply. The question is: who makes the decision, and on what basis?
Warnings NHS faces real terms funding reduction of 1 per cent a year
A leading health think tank has warned the NHS faces a funding gap of £6 billion a year by 2015. The King's Fund says that, contrary to George Osborne’s claim the NHS will get an annual real-terms rise of 0.1 per cent, the NHS will in effect face a reduction of more than 1 per cent a year if it is to maintain existing levels of treatment and cover, given changes in the population.
‘Ring-fenced’ NHS will receive limited protection from the coalition
Do health services really justify a ring-fenced budget? Left Foot Forward's health policy expert Trevor Cheeseman examines the issue.
National standards in health and care ‘not our role’ says Coalition
Labour must define itself by defending a core level of service quality - putting back the National back into the NHS, and a new National Care Service as well.
Coalition NHS reforms may lead to serious pressures on clinical freedom
Under the coalition’s planned NHS reforms GPs could find themselves with serious headaches, with serious pressures on clinical freedom and financial viability.
GPs’ “major concerns” about Lansley’s reforms
It has been described as the Coalition’s Charge of the Light Brigade – but now it seems the cavalry are having second thoughts, the cavalry being GPs.