Do hospitals respond to greater autonomy? Evidence from the English NHS

Rossella Verzulli, Rowena Jacobs and Maria Goddard
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Rowena Jacobs: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK

No 064cherp, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, University of York

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.

Keywords: Foundation Trusts; hospital reform; performance indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2011-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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http://www.york.ac.uk/media/che/documents/papers/r ... oundation_Trusts.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

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