Do Hospitals Respond to Greater Autonomy?: Evidence from the English NHS

R. Verzulli; R. Jacobs; M Goddard

Do Hospitals Respond to Greater Autonomy? Evidence from the English NHS

Centre for Health Economics

Research output: Working paper

Abstract

Foundation Trusts (FTs) were introduced in the English NHS in 2004/5 and gave NHS Trusts the opportunity to become independent not-for-profit public benefit corporations. Whilst remaining in the public sector, FTs were granted greater autonomy than non-FTs. The reform was intended to create incentives for providers to deliver higher quality services in the most efficient way. This paper examines the impact of the FT policy on hospital performance, as proxied by
measures of financial management, quality of care and staff satisfaction. Results suggest that generally FTs perform better than non-FTs. However, these differences appear to be long-standing rather than the effect of the FT policy per se and we find some evidence of a convergence in hospital performance between FTs and non-FTs.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	York, UK
Publisher	Centre for Health Economics, University of York
Number of pages	32
Publication status	Published - Jul 2011

Publication series

Name	CHE Research Paper
Publisher	Centre for Health Economics, University of York
No.	64

Bibliographical note

RP64

Keywords

Foundation Trusts
hospital reform
performance indicators

Access to Document

RP64_Foundation_TrustsFinal published version, 232 KB

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/che/documents/papers/researchpapers/RP64_Foundation_Trusts.pdf

Cite this

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