In a number of countries where health care is publicly funded, policies to introduce greater patient choice are being implemented. In most cases patient choice is seen as an instrument to reduce waiting times for elective (non-emergency) hospital services. An important issue is whether...

In March 2004 the Department of Health commissioned a research team from the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research to develop new approaches to measuring NHS outputs and productivity. The research objectives were...

There has been a long history of hospital trust cost-efficiency targets being used in the National Health Service (NHS), but there is little evidence about whether they are effective in reducing hospital unit costs and reducing the dispersion of unit costs between trusts. In 1997, the new Labour...

<title/> There has been a long history of hospital trust cost-efficiency targets being used in the National Health Service (NHS), but there is little evidence about whether they are effective in reducing hospital unit costs and reducing the dispersion of unit costs between trusts. In 1997, the new...

Cost-efficiency targets, used to encourage downward pressure on hospital unit costs, have been employed within the UK NHS for many years. There has been considerable speculation that these targets create incentives to reduce beds and increase occupancy rates at the expense of holding spare...

In many countries, patient choice is a routine part of the normal healthcare system. However, many choice initiatives in secondary care are part of policies aimed at reducing waiting times. This article provides evidence on the effectiveness of patient choice as a mechanism to reduce waiting...