Circulatory Disease in the NHS: Measuring Trends in Hospital Costs and Output

Following the publication of the Atkinson Review of the measurement of government outputs in the National Accounts, there has been great interest in measuring the productivity growth of the National Health Service. Such macro measures of productivity are important when deciding how much public money to devote to the NHS, and in holding the NHS to account. However, it is also important to gain an understanding of the productivity of individual programmes of care, so as to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently within the NHS. Hitherto, such information has not been available. This report is an exploratory study of the feasibility and usefulness of developing measures of growth in outputs, costs and productivity of a single programme of care within the NHS: hospital treatment of circulatory diseases.

Exploring the impact of public services on quality of life indicators

The fundamental aim of public services is to improve the quality of life of citizens. The main objective of this study was to investigate the influence of public service organisations (PSOs) on aspects of quality of life (broadly measured) of citizens at a local level. We assembled a rich database using 20 of the 45 quality of life measures developed by the Audit Commission. Those we selected covered broad areas of quality of life such as safety, housing, health, education, and transport and were available at ‘small area’ level. We used a range of advanced statistical methods to analyse the relationships between PSOs and quality of life measures at different hierarchical levels. The techniques were selected to be robust when making comparisons between levels and when looking at associations between quality of life measures. Our descriptive analyses (bivariate correlations, factor analysis and ANOVA) suggested overall some significant correlations between some of the quality of life variables. The SUR model results also indicated that the quality of life indicators are correlated, and therefore that we should look at these measures in a joint modelling approach such as MVML, as envisaged in the study objectives.

Regional variation in the productivity of the English National Health Service

At a time when there are severe pressures on reducing public spending there is increasing emphasis on determining which parts of the country secure best value for money in the NHS. By linking together large scale and routinely collected datasets we produce and compare productivity estimates across the ten Strategic Health Authorities in England in 2007/08.

The genus Echinofabricia (Annelida: Fabriciidae) in the Mediterranean Sea with the description of E. rousei sp. nov.

The new species Echinofabricia rousei is described for the Mediterranean Sea based on specimens collected along the Sardinia Coast (Porto Conte). The genus Echinofabricia is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean area. At present three species are described within the genus: E. goodhartzorum, described from the Caribbean, E. dubia, described from the East Pacific (Hawaii) and E. alata from Australia

Measurement of Health system performance

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

MENTES CONFLITUOSAS

Este artigo se refere à reflexão dos conflitos mentais de um rapaz, que assassinou um líder e seu filho, de uma seita religiosa onde era adepto, o Santo Daime, culto surgido em solo brasileiro, no início do século XX, fundado por Raimundo Irineu Serra, que reúne elementos cristãos, da tradição espírita européia, indígenas e africanos, e que conta com a ingestão de uma bebida feita a partir dos mesmos elementos constituintes da ayahuasca, bebida sagrada utilizada pelos incas. This article refers to the reflection of the mental conflicts of a boy who killed a leader and his son, a religious sect where he was adept, the Santo Daime cult emerged on Brazilian soil in the early twentieth century, founded by Irineu Serra, which includes Christian elements, the European spirit of tradition, Indians and Africans, and that includes the ingestion of a beverage made from the same constituents of ayahuasca, a sacred drink used by the Incas. Palavras-chave. Dependência toxicológica. Perturbações psicológicas. Estranhos rituais religiosos

Hospital Trusts productivity in the English NHS : Uncovering possible drivers of productivity variations

Background: Health care systems in OECD countries are increasingly facing economic challenges and funding pressures. These normally demand interventions (political, financial and organisational) aimed at improving the efficiency of the health system as a whole and its single components. In 2009, the English NHS Chief Executive, Sir David Nicholson, warned that a potential funding gap of £20 billion should be met by extensive efficiency savings by March 2015. Our study investigates possible drivers of differential Trust performance (productivity) for the financial years 2010/11-2012/13. Methods: Following accounting practice, we define Productivity as the ratio of Outputs over Inputs. We analyse variation in both Total Factor and Labour Productivity using ordinary least squares regressions. We explicitly included in our analysis factors of differential performance highlighted in the Nicholson challenge as the sources were the efficiency savings should come from. Explanatory variables include efficiency in resource use measures, Trust and patient characteristics, and quality of care. Results: We find that larger Trusts and Foundation Trusts are associated with lower productivity, as are those treating a greater proportion of both older and/or younger patients. Surprisingly treating more patients in their last year of life is associated with higher Labour Productivity