BMJ  2006;333:56-57 (8 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7558.56

Editorial

Better services and more choice in the NHS

Leaders should not ignore the pitfalls and benefits of bringing services to the doorstep

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

The English public wants three things from community services: to have more control of their health and care; support and enablement to maintain their health, independence, and wellbeing; and rapid and convenient access to high quality, cost effective care, closer to their homes.^{1 2} Hence, in a white paper—Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services—earlier this year the Department of Health recommended a substantial transfer of NHS functions to the community, proposing that up to 15 million outpatient attendances should be delivered in community settings.¹

To avoid fragmentation, control of most local health resources will be given to general practices via practice based commissioning while primary care trusts develop the necessary infrastructures to shift specialist care. Primary care trusts will be given the incentives for change through the mechanism of payment by results, a method already being used with hospital trusts to pay . . . [Full text of this article]

Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London, London NW3 2PF

Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London, London NW3 2PF
(a.bowling@ucl.ac.uk)

Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Economic evaluation of a general practitioner with special interests led dermatology service in primary care

Joanna Coast, Sian Noble, Alison Noble, Sue Horrocks, Oya Asim, Tim J Peters, and Chris Salisbury
BMJ 2005 331: 1444-1449. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Virtual outreach: economic evaluation of joint teleconsultations for patients referred by their general practitioner for a specialist opinion

P B Jacklin, J A Roberts, P Wallace, A Haines, R Harrison, J A Barber, S G Thompson, L Lewis, R Currell, S Parker, and P Wainwright
BMJ 2003 327: 84. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Cost effectiveness of treating primary care patients in accident and emergency: a comparison between general practitioners, senior house officers, and registrars

Jeremy Dale, Henrietta Lang, Jennifer A Roberts, Judith Green, and Edward Glucksman
BMJ 1996 312: 1340-1344. [Abstract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Stephenson, T (2007). How can the UK National Health Service be broke?. Arch. Dis. Child. 92: 189-190 [Full text]  

Online poll

Find out more on doc2doc >>