Governments faced with rising costs and growing demand are constantly searching for methods of delivering higher productivity in healthcare, or put more simply, ways of getting higher quality without increasing expenditure. The Health and Social Care Bill currently being voted on in the House of Lords has placed considerable weight on the encouragement of choice and competition. Critics of the Bill are vociferous in arguing that a focus on choice and competition is, at best, misguided and, at worst, will lead to the whole-scale privatisation of the NHS.
In fact, a cool look at both the evidence gives a more positive picture.
First, there is the evidence from the ‘Choose and Book’ reforms of the last Labour administration. Implemented in 2006, these mandated that patients be allowed to choice from up to 5 hospitals for their treatment, and so introduced competition between healthcare providers. The evidence from these…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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