Bringing you the latest independent views on health and social care from The King's Fund, all of our reports and findings from our projects are available to buy or download.
To order printed copies of our publications, please purchase online or contact publications@kingsfund.org.uk or 020 7307 2568.
Free choice, allowing patients to choose a hospital anywhere in England, begins in April 2008. This briefing summarises the most recent data on choice of referral.
In this briefing we analyse the 2008/9 Operating Framework, created by the Department of Health as a set of priorities and guidance for running the NHS.
Bringing together the findings from the Caring Choices events and website, this report looks at possible solutions to the problem of funding long-term care.
This briefing explores some of the questions and issues relating to practice-based commissioning in England, examines the pace of implementation and offers some analysis of the impact – current and future – on NHS services.
This briefing examines the recent debate over hospital configuration in England; describes what changes are currently being proposed together with the main factors driving these changes; and sets out the process by which services can be reconfigured.
This briefing explains how Payment by Results (PbR) works, examines the evidence on whether the system has achieved, or is likely to achieve, the policy aims set for it, and describes the government's current proposals for the future of PbR.
Since the Wanless review of 2002, Securing our Future Health, NHS spending has increased by nearly 50 per cent. Our report looks at where that money has been spent, what it has achieved and whether government policy has promoted effective use of resources.
This briefing analyses and comments on the key proposals contained in the policy document NHS Autonomy and Accountability, which was released by the Conservative party in June 2007.
This briefing analyses the latest figures and data extracted from NHS trust boards, to assess the scale of the challenges to the financial security of the NHS in the future.
What next for the NHS reforms? Based on a simulation event and extensive discussions with stakeholders, this paper offers insights into the health system of the future.
Despite receiving widespread support, implementation of practice-based commissioning (PBC) has been slow. This report explores the current situation for PBC and considers how it might be driven forward within the NHS.
This briefing outlines the current system of professional regulation in the UK; describes the criticisms of this system; details the government's proposals for reform; and discusses the potential strengths and weaknesses of the proposed changes.
This briefing outlines the main points in the 2007/8 Operating Framework, provides some analysis of the content and discusses the implications of the accompanying documents.
Discusses the causes of the NHS deficit in 2005/6 and considers three recent policy developments, asking what their impacts might be on NHS organisations and how they could be improved.
Amid increasing independent and voluntary sector involvement in NHS service delivery this report highlights issues that the government and health service providers in all three sectors should address.
This briefing describes the main points contained in the 2006/7 Operating Framework and provides some commentary about what the document implies for the competing strands of NHS reform.
Drawing on evidence from five acute NHS trusts, this paper assesses the impact of the new consultant contract in England and asks whether reforms will translate into benefits for patients.
