Direct comparison?

This article reports that as New Labour begins a third term in office, the National Health Service (NHS) looks likely to be dominated by an ongoing emphasis on personalization, on people with long-term conditions and on patient choice. At present, policy has tended to focus very much on choice of acute provider, on the expert patient and on professional case managers to reduce the number of emergency hospital admissions. In many ways, this is a new agenda for the NHS, and the jury is very much out on whether such a large, professionally dominated and acute care-focused organization can really deliver on these aspirations. Since 1997, disabled people have been able to receive cash sums in lieu of directly provided social services, using these to design their own care packages and to employ their own staff. With peer support from Centres of Independent Living, the evidence suggests that this way of working increases choice and control, improves satisfaction and leads to fewer unmet needs, greater continuity of care and a more cost-effective use of public resources.