Abstract

The author has been a Prime Ministerial Adviser and has held senior national and local appointments, including being a member of the National Care Standards Commission and Chairman of the Patients’ Association. The critical challenges to the British NHS are the consequences of us all living longer, having to manage chronic conditions over time, expecting and demanding more, and being denied many innovative new drugs (notably, for cancer) which cannot be afforded at present by the too narrowly funded NHS. This needs to be changed, in line with more successful funding systems in Europe, Australia, and the Far East, where outcomes are much better than in the UK. This radical new book offers economic solutions based on direct financial incentives to the individual to care for themselves better, to save and invest in future funding, for a much broader funding base including the greater use of insurance, and to ask government to re-appraise the system urgently. It will be controversial, and will spark lively new debate, as well as serving as a student text for courses concerned with healthcare, and clinical practise. This new book follows Professor Spiers’ several successful previously published commentaries on the NHS and public policy, including Who Decides Who Decides? Enabling choice, equity, access, improved performance and patient guaranteed care, published by Radcliffe Medical Press.
“Wonderful read. As John Spiers shows in this sprightly, erudite, concise book, when you ask the right questions, you get the right answers.” Professor Regina E. Herzlinger, Harvard Business School.