Liberating the NHS

Much is being (and will be) written about the Health and Social Care Bill, which sets out the reform of the English National Health Service.

The bill can be accessed here, and its progress through the House of Commons and the House of Lords can be tracked here. Editorials in the two main British medical journals are not particularly supportive. The Lancet poses a revealing question "The end of the National Health Service?", while the British Medical Journal uses Boris Karloff's characterization as Frankenstein to illustrate what it is called "Dr Lansley's [the current Secretary of Health] Monster".

Joint OECD and EC Health Report

The OECD report Health at a Glance focuses on health issues across the 27 European Union member states, three European Free Trade Association countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and Turkey. It summarizes in 42 indicators comparable data covering a wide range of topics, including health status, risk factors, health workforce and health expenditure in these countries. This publication is the result of a collaboration between the OECD, and the European Commission and the full report is accessible here.

Improving the contribution of health services research to evidence based policy

Health services researchers may dream that the New Year resolution of policy makers is to make their policies more evidence based. There are a few things that need to happen in order to help them succeed. A recent policy brief provides an overview of major research priorities based on stakeholder involvement at national and European level, and it offers possible directions for improving the contribution of health services research to policy. The research has been conducted as part of the HSR Europe project. This project is led by a consortium of five major health services research institutes in Europe and is funded through the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission with the aims of identifying, evaluating and improving the contribution of Health Services Research to the health policy process in Europe.