the article by brenna and spandonaro on interregional mobility for acute hospital care in italy raises important issues concerning social and territorial equity in a healthcare system. based on regions and private providers’ strategic behavior, the hypothesis adopted to explain patient cross-border mobility (cbm), demonstrated by statistical analysis, may be further explored using qualitative m...

the paper by gilbert et al. should be on the table of every politician and national health service (nhs) manager in the run up to the general election, when the nhs is at the hustings. they have raised profound moral dilemmas of the internal and external market in their present form, such as the practicalities of distributive justice and the enhancement of autonomy – to which are added the pres...

background in recent years, accreditation of private hospitals followed by decentralisation of the italian national health service (nhs) into 21 regional health systems has provided a good empirical ground for investigating the tiebout principle of “voting with their feet”. we examine the infra-regional trade-off between greater patient choice (due to an increase in hospital services supply) an...

Martin Powell suggests that the death of the English National Health Service (NHS) has been announced so many times we are at risk of not noticing should it actually happen. He is right. If we 'cry wolf' too many times, we risk losing sight of what is important about the NHS and why.

This article considers how the 'accidental logics' of political settlements for the English National Health Service (NHS) and the Medicare and Medicaid programmes in the United States have resulted in different institutional arrangements and different implicit social contracts for rationing, which we define to be the denial of health care that is beneficial but is deemed to be too costly. This ...

This commentary explores some of the issues raised by Gilbert et al.short communication, Morality and Markets in the NHS. The increasing role of market mechanisms and the changing types of healthcare providers together with the use of choice and competition to drive improvements in quality in the National Health Service (NHS), all have important ethical implications. In order for the NHS to con...

Since its establishment in 1948, the history of the National Health Service (NHS) has been characterized by organisational turbulence and system reform. At the same time, progress in science, medicine and technology throughout the western world have revolutionized the delivery of healthcare. The NHS has become a much loved, if much critiqued, national treasure. It is against this backdrop that ...

The paper entitled ‘Patient Safety: Whose Vision?’ examined the concept of ‘patient safety’ and attempted to unravel its inherent complexity by examining the perceptions of a range NHS managers and professionals. It drew from a recently completed National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation (NIHR SDO) programme commissioned study, which employed qualitative methods t...

Recent disclosures of failures of care in the National Health Service (NHS) in England have led to debates about compassion deficits disallowing health professionals to provide high quality responsive care. While the link between high quality care and compassion is often taken for granted, it is less obvious how compassion – often originating in the individual’s emotional response – can become ...

This is a commentary on Gilbert and colleagues’ (1) paper on morality and markets in the National Health Service (NHS). Morality and values are not ephemeral qualities and universal healthcare is not simply an aspiration; it has to be enshrined in law. The creation of the UK NHS in 1948 was underpinned by core legal duties which required a system of public funding and delivery to follow. The mo...