21.02.12
Competition, when well regulated, helps the NHS
Competition between NHS hospitals improves performance, but competing with private healthcare providers does lead to ‘cherry-picking’, according to new research.
Patients have shorter stays in hospital before and after surgery in areas where they can choose between a range of hospitals, researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) found.
But in areas with private hospitals, length of stay increased, with public hospitals treating older and poorer patients as the private firms take on quick and straightforward cases to save money.
Researchers studied records of over 1.8 million patient observations in the NHS inEnglandbetween 2002 and 2010, with particular focus on the length of stay in hospital, which is considered a useful measure of a hospital’s efficiency.
Prof Zack Cooper said: “We found two core findings. Clearly competition between NHS hospitals improves productivity, quality and efficiency. But when they opened up competition to private sector in 2008 it didn’t improve results.
“This means you need strong regulation. It shows that competition can be positive but it’s not a simple policy. You need a regulatory body to make sure providers don’t try to compete by avoiding patients but by raising quality.
“This research will make everybody upset. The folks who don’t like competition will say they don’t like it; the gung-ho types in the private sector will also not like it. But we have to move past public and private debate.”
Ministers have promised the Health & Social Care Bill, while encouraging more competition in the NHS, will not allow cherry picking by the private sector at the expense of NHS services.
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