Competition, markets and choice

Our work on competition between providers of NHS, health and care services and patient choice

Is the NHS being privatised?

The involvement of the private sector in the NHS is a hotly contested topic. We consider whether the NHS is being privatised.

Reforming the NHS from within: Beyond hierarchy, inspection and markets

Our paper argues for a fundamental shift in how the NHS is reformed, learning from what has worked (and what has not) in England and elsewhere.

A modest proposal? Choice and competition in the long-term plan

Can the principle of choice and competition work alongside integrated care and the demands of patients with multi-morbidity? Nicholas Timmins unpacks NHS England’s plans to make integrated care work more effectively and what this might mean in terms of changes to legislation.

Diagram of NHS commissioning cycle

What is commissioning and how is it changing?

Commissioning is the process by which health and care services are planned, purchased and monitored. Here we look at the commissioning process in more detail, the organisations involved and how it is changing.

Patient choice in the NHS reading list

A selected list of references held by The King's Fund library.

Missing the wood for the trees

Ben Collins reflects on the reasons behind the failure of the UnitingCare contract, and lessons that have been learnt for commissioning in the NHS.

Patient engagement: The first 100 days of the new government

The Secretary of State has stressed the role of patients, calling for a new 'social contract’ between the public and health and care services.

Paid for by the NHS, treated privately

John Appleby looks at how much non-NHS providers contribute to NHS care.

Is the NHS being privatised?

Here we look at the thorny issue of NHS privatisation.

Tearing up the NHS competition rule book

Our briefing on procurement and competition law attempts something rare in the current debate: a purely technical discussion of whether an incoming government could dismantle the current rules given the relationships between UK and EU law.

Procurement and competition rules: Can the NHS be exempted?

In this briefing, The King’s Fund seeks to clarify whether a new government could extract the NHS from European Union procurement and competition rules.

Creating change from within

Dr Tracey Batten, Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, reflects on the challenges of working in two very different health care systems and tells us how she thinks we can reform the NHS from within.

Completed project

Dalton review

Sir David Dalton's review on new options for providers of NHS care considered issues such as single leadership teams for networks of hospitals and services.

Chris Ham: reforming the NHS – lessons from the past and pointers to the future

Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King's Fund, gives an overview and summary of our new report, Reforming the NHS from within, drawing on evidence and examples from overseas to address the processes of reforming and improving the NHS.

It's time to end top-down reform of the NHS

Politicians’ role in the running of the National Health Service (NHS) needs to be better defined to counter interventionist and centralising tendencies that have hampered effective reform to date, says a new report by The King’s Fund.

Competition and choice

As part of our Time to Think Differently work, we analysed the impact of the reforms on competition and choice that were were designed to create stronger incentives to improve performance within the NHS.

Hospital chains: a recipe for success?

Jeremy Hunt has asked Sir David Dalton to advise him how to make it easy for NHS 'super-heads' to take over struggling organisations. But will hospital chains work? Candace Imison looks at experience from the UK and abroad.

The NHS is more fragmented than ever

Chris Ham looks at the impact of the coalition government's NHS reforms in a comment article for The Independent.

NHS mergers: learning the lessons of Bournemouth and Poole

What are the repercussions of the Competition Commission's rejection of the proposed merger in Bournemouth and Poole?

Our response to the Competition Commission's decision on the proposed merger between Bournemouth and Poole hospitals

Chris Ham comments on the decision by the Competition Commission to reject the proposed merger between Bournemouth and Poole hospitals.

Catherine Davies: Will competition be a help or a hindrance?

Catherine Davies, Executive Director of Co-operation and Competition, Monitor discusses competition, regulation and reconfiguration in the NHS.

Chris Hopson: Will competition be a help or a hindrance?

Chris Hopson, of the Foundation Trust Network, discusses competition competition, regulation and reconfiguration in the NHS.

Commissioning and contracting: Our work on the ways in which NHS, health and care services are commissioned and purchased

Health and Social Care Act 2012: Our work on this significant and far-reaching reform of the NHS

Patient involvement: Our work on the role of patients and the public in health and care and service design