The Development of National Health Service Social Enterprises in England

Author(s):  
Sebrene Margaret Maher

The purpose of this chapter is to examine government policy framework relating to the development of social enterprise within National Health Service providers. The number of social enterprises delivering public healthcare services is continually growing. This chapter discusses challenges and benefits for the government. Potential barriers to achieving this development are also evaluated. Although the focus is primarily upon the policy agenda in England, the chapter makes a useful contribution to the ongoing international debate on the development of social enterprises in primary and secondary care. This review identifies that National Health Service social enterprises responds to local needs, bring innovative, effective ways of managing heathcare in the community. It is clear from reviewing the literature that healthcare services are changing and being continually shaped by social enterprises providers.

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lewis

A new political consensus has emerged over the benefits of new rights for patients to choose their provider of elective health care in the English National Health Service. From December 2005, patients will be able to select from a number of alternative providers at the time they are referred for treatment. In the longer term, patients will be able to access care at any public or private provider that meets national quality and cost standards. The government intends that this policy will lead to improvements in the quality and efficiency of health care and will reduce levels of inequity among patients. Pilot schemes have shown that a majority of patients will exercise a choice of provider when this is offered. However, the policy of patient choice may involve significant costs to the NHS and may be more difficult to implement outside urban areas. Further, the information needed to support patients' choices is not yet available. Whether such a policy will increase or decrease levels of equity in the English NHS remains open to debate.


1994 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Lloyd-Smith

The present governmental reforms of the National Health Service are the most far-reaching to date and have fundamental implications for health professionals. The focus of this article is to raise some of these issues in relation to occupational therapy. The introduction of trusts, the purchaser/provider split and the internal market are some of the mechanisms by which the government hoped to tackle the funding crisis of the late 1980s. These reforms have been operating since 1991, but little has been published on the impact of the self-governing trust movement on occupational therapy. Some observations on and an evaluation of these reforms are offered. It is hoped that the article will stimulate discussion within the profession about the role of trusts and their relationship to the delivery and development of an occupational therapy service.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 216-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gill Green ◽  
Hannah Bradby ◽  
Anita Chan ◽  
Maggy Lee ◽  
Kimmy Eldridge

Objectives: To identify barriers to communication between health care workers and Chinese women living in England, a group who are known to use the National Health Service (NHS) less than other ethnic groups; to consider whether such barriers lead to inequitable access to NHS mental health treatment; and to determine the extent to which this results from institutional racism. Method: A purposive sample of 42 Chinese women living in South-East England aged 29-60 years derived from a primary care group, two secondary mental health service providers and three Chinese associations. Subjects had all consulted a general practitioner and had either experienced mental distress ( n = 24) and/or had used traditional Chinese medicine ( n = 25). Results: Communication with health care professionals was hindered by a lack of common language and an absence of shared concepts concerning the causes and manifestations of health and illness, particularly mental health. This lack of communication resulted in delayed diagnoses, misunderstood treatment regimens and deterred women from (re-)presenting to the NHS. Among our informants, these types of problem were more acute for those women who were most marginalised from English-language culture. Conclusions: Linguistic and conceptual problems explain Chinese women's relatively poor access to mental health services. The continuing failure to tackle systematically these communication problems through the routine provision of interpretation and advocacy services lays the health care system open to the charge of 'institutional racism'.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 26-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kar Neng Lai ◽  
Wai Kei Lo

The socioeconomic statuses of Asian countries are diverse and government reimbursement policies for renal replacement programs vary greatly from one country to another. Both factors affect not only the availability of treatment but also the choice of dialysis modality. Despite the economic growth of Hong Kong over the past three decades, the resources spent by our government on health services are less than other developed countries. The National Health Service, which is run on a tight budget, supports almost 95% of the patients on renal replacement programs. Due to the cost-effectiveness and reimbursement from the government, 79% of patients with end-stage renal failure in Hong Kong are treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). All new patients entering the renal replacement program run by the National Health Service are offered CAPD as the first-line dialytic treatment. Due to budgetary constraint, over the past 10 years dialysis centers in Hong Kong have adopted a small-volume regime of 3 x 2-L daily exchanges as the initial dialysis prescription. This dialysis prescription will be considered to be suboptimal by Western standards, but the survival of these patients was comparable to, or even better than, other areas despite a lower Kt/V. These preliminary studies suggest small-volume dialysis may be an acceptable compromise in Asian populations with their smaller body size, given the financial constraints. These issues are especially important in Asia, where financial resources for renal replacement therapy are still limited in most countries and many patients have to continue working to pay for their renal replacement treatment. Using this small-volume dialytic regime, more patients may be treated with the limited financial resources. Furthermore, our experience raises the question of the importance of nutritional status in patient survival.


When considering the provision of healthcare services, it is necessary to examine action at a local level and problems that local health service providers must face. This is essentially because it is within individual communities and neighbourhoods that most public healthcare interventions take place. Local intervention is also important in order to coordinate a more even pattern of healthcare provision across the regions. There are significant disparities between regions and inter-regions of the UK. Recent cuts to public services, welfare benefits, and public employment have severely affected those regions. This chapter will thus explore health inequalities and inequity of supply across the devolved administrations, regions, and sub-regions. It will then review policy to address health inequalities and consider to what extent the current public health service governance framework, and especially health service provision at the local level, can mitigate disparities in health outcomes. It includes a short section on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 04005
Author(s):  
Paul K.Y. Siu ◽  
K.L. Choy ◽  
H.Y. Lam

Due to the advancement of living standard and medical technologies, the life expectancy of people is further extended which brings tremendous impact to the society in the near future. The ageing population not only increases the pressure to public healthcare services, but also brings urgent needs in long term healthcare resources allocation planning in the society. This paper presents an Elderly Behaviour Analytics Model (EBAM) to identify the hospital healthcare service preferences of elderly for the future planning of healthcare industry. By conducting an elderly-targeted survey, the collected data is analysed to understand the factors affecting the decision of elderly to acquire healthcare services in hospitals. The model applies the genetic algorithm-guided clustering-based association rule mining approach for the segmentation of hospital service preferences of the elderly, and, the identification of relationship between personal characteristics within each cluster. This research study contributes to the understanding the actual healthcare needs of elderly which allows the government and healthcare service providers to adjust or modify the elderly policies and service content.


2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 443-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Jacob ◽  
Eluned Dorkins ◽  
Helen Smith

The National Health Service (NHS) is undergoing extensive modernisation. Central to this process is the move away from a professional-led health service to a patient-centred system, which offers patients the ‘power’ to make decisions about their healthcare. In 2003, the government announced their plans for ‘patient choice’ within the NHS (Department of Health, 2003).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document