The new model NHS: performance, perceptions and expectations.
OBJECTIVE
This article analyses the transformation of the National Health Service (NHS) in England from a command-and-control to a mimic market model.


RESULTS
Even while introducing market incentives and encouraging private providers, the new model preserves the essential characteristics of the NHS as a universal, tax-funded service free at the point of delivery.


RESULTS
The spectacle of famine among plenty -- service cutbacks at a time when the level of spending on the NHS is at a rate unprecedented in its history -- raises doubts about the competence of both local managers and central policy makers. Payment by results gives providers an incentive to maximize activity so prompting questions about the future rationing of resources and the role of the medical profession therein. AREAS TO DEVELOP RESEARCH: The implementation and effects of the policies already introduced and their modification in the light of experience.
Klein
Rudolf
R
London School of Economics, London, UK. rudolfklein30@aol.com
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004739:England; D005544:Forecasting; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive