Publications

Community pharmacy is a critical part of primary care in England, but its role and relationship to the wider NHS is often poorly understood. This explainer looks at the community pharmacy sector in England, explaining how pharmacies are contracted and funded, the types of services they provide and future trends in the sector.

A new financial architecture for the NHS requires coherence and balance, and a recognition that that any national financial strategy will be heavily mediated by the quality of local relationships. Richard Murray and Siva Anandaciva discuss how lessons from the recent history of NHS finances can help the system plan for the future.

Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, Richard Murray, has written an open letter to the Chancellor, the Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, to outline why health and care services need the stability of a multi-year funding deal.

A key part of the NHS long-term plan, primary care networks (PCNs) will bring general practices together to work at scale. But what are they? How are they funded and held accountable? And what difference will they make? Beccy Baird explains the latest form of GP collaboration.

Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing. But does it work? And how does it fit in with wider health and care policy?

Covid-19 has dramatically altered how NHS services and finances operate. Our 29th QMR looks at where the NHS expected to be at the end of 2019/20, where it actually finds itself in 2020/21, and what impact Covid-19 might have in the future.

It has become received wisdom that the NHS struggles to adopt digital innovation, but during the Covid-19 pandemic, many NHS providers have moved services online at astonishing pace. Ben Collins looks at four digital innovations in health services from the UK and the Nordic countries.

Our submission highlights some of the key pressures and challenges the social care sector is facing and sets out some reforms the government could make to address these issues.

The King’s Fund, Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust have submitted a joint letter to the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee warning that it will take many months before NHS and social care organisations are able to fully restart services following the Covid-19 outbreak.