Will a market deliver quality and efficiency in health care better than central planning ever could? Yes

doi:10.1136/bmj.c1299

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.

Stephen Smith, principal

¹Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London SW7 2AZ

s.k.smith{at}imperial.ac.uk

James Gubb (doi:10.1136/bmj.c1297) and Stephen Smith are convinced that market forces will improve the NHS, but Neal Lawson (doi:10.1136/bmj.c1300) and Jonathon Tomlinson (doi:10.1136/bmj.c1302) have their doubts

Markets already exist in health care, working to deliver innovation alongside quality and efficiency. They exist at many levels—between competing individuals, systems, and organisations, both public and private. Although many of these markets successfully deliver and innovate, such as those in medical devices and drugs that generate a substantial proportion of the UK gross domestic product, several of the existing markets are imperfect.

Adam Smith said that a perfect market exists where there …