28.02.12
New international evidence that competition improves healthcare
The independent think tankReform, which favours market solutions in the public sector, has published international case studies providing evidence for the benefits of competition for patients.
The studies show that competition allows new organisations to run services better, more efficiently and often at lower cost.
The evidence has been released just ahead of the vote on the Health and Social Care Bill in the House of Lords this week. The Reform case studies challenge the claim that competition will fragment NHS services, demonstrating instead that competition can bring in new providers able to integrate services that were previously uncoordinated.
For example, in the highly competitive German healthcare system, a public hospital has improved standards of care by collecting different specialists and services into one location, reducing the cost of care by up to 25% compared to the national average.
Other case studies show how other types of radical health reform can improve services and reduce costs. In Finland, a public-private partnership moved joint replacement surgery from five local hospitals to one regional centre. The new centre achieves complication rates of less than 1% compared to rates of up to 12% in general hospitals.
InEnglandtoo, competition has improved systems, researchers say. In University Hospitals Birmingham, a new IT system to track medical errors and provide decision support to front line clinicians has cut medication errors by 66%, resulting in a 17% reduction in 30-day mortality rates.
Nick Seddon, Reform’s deputy director, said that government must defend the competition clauses of the Health and Social Care Bill this week. He said: “Parliament should pass the Health Bill including the clauses on competition, not because the Bill is perfect but because the NHS must move on. If the NHS wants to be the best in the world, it should learn from the best in the world and the radical changes that other countries are implementing.”
For an in-depth look at the effects of competition on the NHS, NHE talks toReform’s senior researcher Thomas Cawston in the upcoming March/April edition.
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