Certain rules have been developed on the minimum increases in public spending needed to cover the costs of aging and the costs of new technology. In practice elderly people only use certain kinds of service and much of the increase has had to be used to finance changes in other services. From...

This paper presents estimates for the costs of training Registered Nurses (RNs) by Degree Courses (4-year courses, based in Universities or Polytechnics) and Diploma Courses (3-year courses,based in Polytechnics and Colleges of Further Education), to be compared with estimates for the...

In recent years considerable progress has been made in developing improved methodologies to measure non-market output in the National Accounts. Most EU Member States have supported the introduction of a legal framework to implement these methodologies and have introduced current best practice...

There has been little economic analysis of the private health care industry in Britain and as a result much of the policy debate about its role has been ill-informed and based on rhetoric. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the market for private health care and the demand for private...

As the number of those with HIV-AIDS increases, an important concern is to understand the pattern and range of social care needs and how best these can be met. This paper relates to the report of a two-year project, funded jointly by the Department of Health (DH) and the Scottish Education...

Over the last 50 years there has been a regular cycle of Government committees which have forecast “shortages” and “surpluses” in medical manpower. It is remarkable how little change there has been in the methods used in these forecasts. This has occurred despite regular critiques of the...

Implementing the findings of research to change the behaviour of health care professionals has become an increasingly prominent issue. However, designing valid studies to evaluate different methods of achieving changes requires considerable care and there are a number of pitfalls evident from...

A composite indicator is an aggregated index comprising individual performance indicators. Composite indicators integrate a large amount of information in a format that is easily understood and are therefore a valuable tool for conveying a summary assessment of performance in priority areas....

It is frequently claimed that social justice requires that some goods – medical care is a frequently cited example – be distributed according to “need”. The most common justification for adoption of this principle is the cause of inequality: the principles of “distribution according to...

Housing is a key element in maintaining well-being and independence in old age. However, the elderly live in worse housing conditions than younger people in terms of unsuitable housing, accommodation which is draughty, cold and lacking in basic amenities and in properties in a poor state of...