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A GREAT deal has been written about Thatcherism. However, the period since 1979 will continue to provide much of the data which political scientists will use to examine broader theoretical [...]

The provisions of the UK Health and Social Care Bill and its implications for the National Health Service and social services are examined. The rationale for merging primary care and community care under new Care Trusts is analysed.

UK's top health experts have come up with a report that recommended debate on such issues as health care rationing and pertinent financial issues. Known as Healthcare 2000, the group recommended that the National Health Service gradually relinquish its role as provider of a 'universal' service to give way to a healthcare rationing system to give patients greater choice. The recommendation is unpopular with politicians in light of the forthcoming elections and they are therefore unwilling to discuss it.

Alan Milburn, the United Kingdom's National Health Service's Health Secretary, is boosting the agency's budget by 40 billion pounds. His planned reforms promise greater choice for patients and an additional 15,000 medical consultants and general practitioners.

The background to the strikes by non-clinical health workers over the transfer of staff to the Dudley Hospital Private Finance Initiative is explored. Reasons for union opposition to the deal and the responses of the Hospital Trust are examined.

Proposals to decentralise the management of the National Health Service under the aegis of 30 agencies are discussed. The rationale for change and the reactions of the British Medical Association are examined.

The United Kingdom's Royal Commission report on long-term care was published two years ago in 1999, but little has been done to consider ways to fund the proposals. The report considered cost among other factors, but its findings appear to be misunderstood.

UK's Healthcare Financial Management Assn. has criticized the National Health Service for allowing a state of uncertainty to prevail that may lead to a mass resignation of qualified accountants. The group has urged immediate action on the matter in terms of finalizing decisions on the site of regional offices, grades and structures and appointments. The group has pledged support to the plan of reducing the number of regions and it wants the implementation to be carried out without delay.

The investigation of the Christopher Clunis case, where the mentally ill patient stabbed a man to death in North London, revealed the lamentable plight of the UK's health policy. The report was sharply critical of the government's decentralization policies and the resulting confusion and lack of coordination it brought. Although the government's health care reform efforts have brought some positive rsults, the many problems that have cropped up need to be addressed.