Abstract
Since 2004, English NHS hospitals have been given the opportunity to acquire a more autonomous status known as a Foundation Trust (FT), whereby regulations and restrictions over financial, management and organisational matters were reduced in order to create incentives to deliver higher quality services in the most efficient way. Using difference-indifference models, we test whether achieving greater autonomy (FT status) improved hospital performance, as proxied by measures of financial management, quality of care and staff satisfaction. Results provide little evidence that the FT policy per se has made any difference to the performance of hospitals in most of these domains. Our findings have implications for health policy and inform the trend towards granting greater autonomy to public sector organisations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 607-626 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | European Journal of Health Economics |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 15 Jun 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Apr 2018 |
Bibliographical note
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.Keywords
- Foundation Trusts
- hospital reform
- autonomy
- hospital performance
- treatment effects
- policy evaluation.