We examine whether a hospitals quality is affected by the quality provided by other hospitals in the same market. We first set out a theoretical model with regulated prices which specifies conditions on demand and cost functions which determine whether a hospital will have higher quality when...

We examine (a) the effect of market structure on the level of mortality for AMI, hip fracture, and stroke between 2002/3 and 2010/11 and (b) whether this effect changed after the introduction of Choice policy in 2006 which gave patients the right to a wider choice of hospital. For AMI and hip...

The relationship between the quality of health care and the extent of competition amongst providers has been the subject of intense policy interest and debate. As part of the ESHCRU programme we are undertaking a set of related investigations into this relationship in the hospital sector, in...

Expenditure on long term care is expected to rise, driven by an ageing population. Coordination between health and long term care is increasingly a priority for policymakers. Elderly individuals living at home who suffer trauma, such as hip fracture or stroke, generally require immediate acute...

Hospital bed blocking occurs when hospital patients are ready to be discharged to a nursing home but no place is available, so that hospital care acts as a more costly substitute for long-term care. We investigate the extent to which higher supply of nursing home beds or lower prices can reduce...

Prospective payment systems are currently used in many OECD countries, where hospitals are paid a fixed price for each patient treated. We develop a theoretical model to analyse the properties of the optimal fixed prices to be paid to hospitals when no lump-sum transfers are allowed and when the...

The English National Health Service was established in 1948, and has therefore yielded some long time series data on health system performance. Waiting times for inpatient care have been a persistent cause of policy concern since the creation of the NHS. This paper develops a theoretical model...

The English government has encouraged private providers – known as Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) – to treat publicly funded (NHS) patients. Providers are paid a fixed price per patient treated, adjusted to reflect geographical differences in input costs. But there may be other...