Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has announced plans to strip the key powers from The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence or NICE.
The institute was set up under Tony Blair’s government to vet the cost-effectiveness of new drugs and treatments, and give national guidance on whether they should be prescribed by doctors within Britain’s National Health Service. Continue reading
The Turkish government has begun to select bids for the first of a “large number” of major hospital projects, estimated at $5 billion over the next five years.
The first is the Kayseri Health Campus, in central Turkey, to include a 1,300-bed general hospital, with 200 mental health beds and 100 high security forensic mental health beds, in a facility serving a city of almost 1 million people and a surrounding area with another 1.8 million. But the Turkish government has opted for a system of financing based on a model that is causing major problems for hospitals in the United Kingdom. Continue reading
Protests over the €1.23 billion spending cuts for health and children’s services imposed last year to combat a massive government deficit are growing in Ireland and even causing some ministers to rethink their positions. Continue reading
The new coalition government in the United Kingdom is expected to resume the process of outsourcing of primary care and community services, which employ about 250,000 people. Until recently these services were directly delivered in England by local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) but they will now be opened up to bids from “any willing provider,” including for-profit companies. Continue reading
Health ministers from 33 of the world’s richest countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), will meet in Paris on Oct. 7 and 8 to discuss “Health system priorities in the aftermath of the crisis.” Continue reading