We apply cross-sectional and panel data methods to a database of 5 million patients in 8,000 English general practices to examine whether better primary care management of 10 chronic diseases is associated with reduced hospital costs. We find that only primary care performance in stroke care is...

We assess the impact of the English version of prospective payment, termed Payment by Results (PbR), on hospital quality, as measured by in-hospital mortality and 28-day emergency readmission. To do this, we exploit the phased introduction of PbR across hospitals and across three treatments (hip...

This document describes the findings of a statistical analysis of the determinants of utilisation of National Health Service inpatient facilities by small areas in England. It forms part of a study by the University of York commissioned by the NHS Executive. The primary purpose of the study was...

This report describes results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative. It builds on our earlier report for the Health Foundation – The link between health care spending and health outcomes: evidence from English...

This report describes preliminary results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative.

Long waiting times for inpatient treatment in the UK National Health Service have long been a source of great popular and political concern, and therefore a target for policy initiatives. One such is the London Patient Choice Project, under which patients at risk of breaching inpatient waiting...

English programme budgeting data have yielded major new insights into the link between health care spending and health outcomes. This paper updates two recent studies that have used programme budgeting data for 295 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England to examine the link between spending and...

For most individuals, the use made of health care in a given year is determined principally by unpredictable random incidents. Of course, some individuals have a predictably higher predisposition to illness than others. However, the general consensus is that only a fraction of individual...

The extent to which the English National Health Service secures value for money for taxpayers has become a central issue of political and public debate. Questions include: how much expenditure growth has been made available to the NHS? on what has that money been spent? what improvements in the...

The Centre for Health Economics and National Institute of Economic and Social Research have recently completed a project funded by the Department of Health to improve measurement of the productivity of the NHS. The researchers have suggested better ways of measuring both outputs and inputs to...