title: Waiting times for hospital admissions: the impact of GP fundholding.
abstract: Waiting times for hospital care are a significant issue in the UK National Health Service (NHS). The reforms of the health service in 1990 gave a subset of family doctors (GP fundholders) both the ability to choose the hospital where their patients were treated and the means to pay for some services. One of the key factors influencing family doctors' choice of hospital was patient waiting time. However, without cash inducements, hospitals would get no direct reward from giving shorter waiting times to a subset of patients. Using a unique dataset, we investigate whether GP fundholders were able to secure shorter waiting times for their patients, whether they were able to do so in cases where they had no financial rewards to offer hospitals, and whether the impact of fundholding spilled over into shorter waiting times for all patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. carol.propper@bristol.ac.uk
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Propper
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Croxson
authors.forename: Arran
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shearer
mesh_terms: D002017:Budgets; D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000592:standards; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom; D014850:Waiting Lists