Publications

Local government’s relationship with the NHS will be 95 years old in 2043 – by then we will know whether the 2012 Health and Social Care Act really was a game-changing shift in the relationship between these two great public service silos.

Since 2003, when the previous Health and Social Care Act created the concept of foundation trust governors, their role has been frequently debated but seen by many as offering only a weak form of accountability.

In this article for the British Medical Journal, Chris Ham considers the choices facing providers who are struggling to balance budgets and protect patient safety and quality of care.

Regardless of their shape or size, building and maintaining strong relationships with GPs is a key challenge for new clinical commissioning groups, write Holly Holder and Shilpa Ross

Angela Coulter writes about the house of care, a new model which places the patient at the heart of the delivery system and encourages personalised care planning.

Relationships between councils and clinical commissioning groups are getting better, but there are big challenges ahead, says Richard Humphries.

All four UK health services face the same problems. Yet none of them is learning from the others about the best approaches, says Nick Timmins.

Local charities can relieve pressure on health services and provide cost effective joined up care in the community. But providers and commissioners are not always aware of what they can offer, says Lisa Weaks

Clinical commissioning groups offer GPs the chance to be more involved in transforming primary care.

There is a pressing need for clinical expertise to be harnessed more effectively in the commissioning of health services, and CCGs potentially provide a way through which this can happen.

Jeremy Hunt's acrimonious exchanges with Andy Burnham this week were the start of something much bigger, says Chris Ham.

The next person appointed as chief executive of NHS England will essentially be the leader of the national health system, says Chris Ham.

Richard Humphries writes about a deepening structural fault line between the NHS and social care providers.

US health care organisations show that doctors must lead efforts in tackling the pressure of further financial cuts and halt the decline in performance, says Chris Ham.

Family and friends tests are an established method of obtaining feedback on performance for many private sector businesses. But how well is this sort of customer feedback suited to public services like the NHS?

In austere times, the importance of resource allocation in the NHS should be clear for everyone − not just policy nerds − says David Buck

Nick Timmins argues that the greatest impact of the NHS reforms may come from the decision to publish data on safety.

We must make the Quality and Outcomes Framework fit for purpose in the era of multimorbidity and cost savings, says Veena Raleigh.

The government’s draft regulations on procurement, patient choice and competition have opened up old wounds in the debate about NHS reform.

This article aims to examine the role of health and wellbeing boards in the context of the government's reforms introduced by the Health and Social Act 2012 and the fundamental challenges facing the NHS and local government; it also aims to assess evidence from the early experience of shadow boards and considers what factors will most influence their success.