Turning around NHS deficits

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7534.131

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Our online table of contents is updated at least twice each day. Read all articles published in the last 7 days.
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
OPEN ACCESS: All research articles are freely available online, with no word limit. Find out more about the BMJ's open access policy. Submit your paper.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Chris Ham, professor of health policy and management (c.j.ham@bham.ac.uk)

Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2RT

It will be hard for the private sector to succeed where the NHS has failed

When the department of health's director of finance invokes Rudyard Kipling to urge NHS directors of finance to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you” (Richard Douglas, speech to the Healthcare Financial Management Association, December 2005) it is a sure sign that the NHS is in trouble. With the NHS in England overspending by £250m in the last financial year and projected to be in deficit by around £650m in this, finance directors have taken much of the blame for the deterioration in NHS budgets. Ministers and civil servants have also been criticised for failing to cost properly the new contracts for NHS staff. The problems of the NHS mirror those confronting British schools three years ago, when extra funding led to deficits because the impact of pay awards for teachers had not been fully allowed for.

For the public and patients the failure of the NHS to achieve a balanced budget in the …