The Medical Manpower Standing Advisory Committee made its first report, “Planning the Medical Workforce”, to the Secretary of State in December 1992; recommending that research should be undertaken to quantify the manpower effects of skill mix initiatives. These issues are being raised against a...

General Medical Services (GMS) are provided mainly through Family Practices, on a demand led basis: that is, there is no cash limit expect for certain specified selected services such as Practice Nurses etc. Nevertheless, since 1948, the Medical Practices Committee (MPC) have influenced the...

The general aim of this one-year project, funded by the Department of Health and in collaboration with CASPE, has been to investigate the relationship between case-mix and nursing workload measures. Specifically, this report focuses on the underlying issue of examining methodologies and...

The objective of this paper is to set out the key findings and implications from an analysis of the activity and workload of nurses of different grades. This is with a view to identifying nursing skill mixes and working practices that may reduce workforce demand for more highly skilled nursing...

This paper illustrates some of the ways in which the Family Practitioner Committee will have to change in order to being about their transformation from the ‘passive paying agency’ into the ‘active manager of customer interests’ when the proposals from the recent White Paper, ‘Working...

Every year the United Kingdom central government assesses the relative spending needs of English local authorities in respect of the services for which is it responsible. This is done by estimating a Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) for each service, which is intended to indicate the spending...

The NHS Executive has recently implemented modifications to the weighted capitation formula for distributing Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) funds in England (NHS Executive, 1994a). Although this was based on some technical work commissioned by the Executive from a team of...

Family Practitioner Committees (FPCs) became independent health authorities as of 1 April 1985. Their remit was to be more responsive to public demands, be accountable directly to the Secretary of State for service delivery and to ensure comprehensive plans in consultation with the professions...

The purpose of this Discussion Paper is to examine the constraints upon, and opportunities for, spreading the workload of general practitioners (GPs) more effectively and efficiently among members of the Primary Health Care Tea, (PHCT). Current knowledge of GP activity is outdated and based on...

This paper first reviews the range of health problems faced by different groups of the ‘homeless’, and second, the use of health services by the homeless and, in particular, their first contact with the service. The current patterns of provision have been widely criticised and the various...