BMJ  2005;331 (19 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7526.0-f

Editor's choice

An uncomfortable ride

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

Whatever the pros and cons for patients, the UK's healthcare reforms promise an uncomfortable ride for doctors. The BMJ's series on the NHS revolution, which continues this week, may be a wake-up call for doctors who haven't yet seen the writing on the wall.

Competition is changing the face of health care in the UK. As Nick Timmins explains (p 1193), competition in secondary care has already forced both the NHS and the private sector to change their behaviour. In response to the first wave of independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs), provided mainly by foreign contractors, BUPA and other private health providers have lowered their prices, and NHS surgical teams have raised their output considerably. Timmins quotes Simon Stevens, Tony Blair's former health adviser: if NHS consultants did not perform the operations there was "a bunch of Germans coming round the corner who would."

Martin Marshall and . . . [Full text of this article]

Fiona Godlee, editor

(fgodlee@bmj.com)


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