BMJ  2005;331:965 (22 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.965

Letter

Time for Ofhealth

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Many public utilities in the United Kingdom have independent regulators to see that commercial interests and unfair pricing do not disadvantage the public. Providers of these public utilities have to submit detailed financial information to the regulator. The regulator may intervene if it thinks that the proposed pricing of services by the provider is unreasonable.

At present the UK does not have an independent regulator of healthcare reform. Governments may undertake reforms on the basis of market principles that run counter to the widely held principle of collaboration between NHS professionals. Yet the consequences of ill judged reform of the NHS may inflict long term damage on the delivery of health care to its citizens.

The shortcomings of the private finance initiative—such as the lack of flexibility in adapting hospital design to changing healthcare needs (highlighted by Atun and McKee in their editorial¹), shortage of hospital capacity,² . . . [Full text of this article]

Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH9 2JAR i.kunkler@ed.ac.uk

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