Report / Royal Commission on the National Health Service.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the National Health Service.
Date:
[1979]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report / Royal Commission on the National Health Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/510 (page 4)
    a team of researchers at Brunel University (published as The Working of the NHS Research Paper Number 1, London, HMSO in June 1978); (b) a study of the local administration of NHS finance, intended to help us tackle that part of our terms of reference which refers to the “best use and management of the financial ... resources’’ of the NHS, undertaken under the supervision of Professor John Perrin of Warwick University (published as The Management of Finance in the NHS Research Paper | Number 2, London, HMSO July 1978); (c) a commentary on the health departments’ resource allocation arrange- ments prepared by Professor Rudolf Klein of Bath University and Mr Martin Buxton of the Policy Studies Institute (published as Allocating Health Resources, A commentary on the Report of the Resource Allocation Working Party Research Paper Number 3, London, HMSO August 1978); (d) a report on medical manpower forecasting prepared by Mr Alan Maynard and Mr Arthur Walker of York University (published as Doctor Man- power 1975-2000: alternative forecasts and their resource implications Research Paper Number 4, London, HMSO September 1978); (e) a study by the Social Survey Division of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys of patient attitudes towards hospital services which comple- mented one already commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Security on access to primary health care services (published as Patients’ attitudes to the Hospital Service Research Paper Number 5, London, HMSO January 1979); (f) jointly with the National Consumer Council a survey of problems of certain groups in gaining access to primary care services (published as Access to Primary Care Research Paper Number 6, London, HMSO February 1979). We published these papers to get the reactions of others to them, and because we were sure they would be of value to many of our readers. We have profited too from other work carried out for us by a number of people outside our own secretariat. Some of them are referred to in the text of this report. 1.14 The 21 chapters of our report that follow are arranged in five parts: a general view of the nation’s health and health care; the NHS and the patient; the NHS and its workers; the NHS and other institutions; management and finance of the NHS; followed by conclusions and recommendations. 1.15 Since “How well are we doing?” is a question which exercises the minds of everyone, the first part of our report, formed of the three chapters which follow this introduction, gives our assessment of the NHS and its strengths and weaknesses at present. 1.16 Throughout the report the four parts of the UK are dealt with