Welfare Reform on the Web (August 2001): National Health Service - Funding
BLAIR TARGET ON HEALTH SPENDING "WILL NOT BE MET"
N. Timmins
Financial Times, May 23rd 2001, p.7
Labour will fail to hit Tony Blair's target of raising health spending in the UK to the European average by 2005, according to both the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the King's Fund.
NHS TO BE GIVEN EQUITY IN NEW JOINT VENTURES
N. Timmins
Financial Times, June 8th 2001, p.6
The Department of Health is putting £175m into Lift the Local Improvement Finance Trust, which will be used to buy out leases on primary care premises, release GPs and dentists with negative equity, help with project management costs and generally remove obstacles to refurbishment of surgeries. The aim of this initiative is to create up to 500 one-stop primary care premises through a new form of public-private partnership in which NHS bodies could be given equity stakes.
NICE: INVOLVING MANAGERS IN KEY ESTIMATES
N. Bosanquet
British Journal of Health Care Management, vol.7, 2201, p.183-184
Paper sets out the scale of the challenge faced by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in making long term estimates of the cost of new drug therapies. Argues that NICE needs to work with local managers to agree a framework for making these estimates. Without partnership working with managers, estimates of long-term costs may be too high.
NURSES FEAR NHS CHARGES
N. Martin
Daily Telegraph, May 21st 2001, p.2
A survey of nurses showed that a third believed that the NHS would stop providing free treatment by 2010 and most thought that patients would have to pay for routine elective surgery.
(See also Times, May 21st 2001, p.4; Independent, May 21st 2001, p.4; Financial Times, May 21st 2001, p.2)
NURSES NEW LEADER PROMISES TO FIGHT FOR MORE PAY
L. Duckworth
Independent, May 25th 2001, p.
Dr Beverley Malone, the new American leader of the Royal College of Nursing, has declared her top priority to be to win a substantial pay rise for NHS nurses, to help with staff retention.
(See also Times, May 25th 2001, p.8; Daily Telegraph, May 25th 2001, p.12; Guardian, May 25th 2001, p.9)