Unlike other industrialised countries, the UK deferred the routine introduction of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) in favour of an experiment. Between 2002 and 2005, MS sufferers were identified, were offered DMTs only if deemed suitable by their physicians, and...

Health economists use “willingness-to-pay” to assess the prospective value of novel interventions. The technique remains controversial, not least with respect to the formats under which values are elicited. The paper analyses the results of a series of studies of the same intervention valued...

There is evidence that patient choice and the quality of service delivery in primary care can be influenced by the organisation and structure of provision at the local level. However, the formal measurement of structure in primary care has yet to be undertaken. Using data for Coventry, standard...

The development of an internal market in UK public sector health care has introduced hard budget constraints for those general practitioner purchasers who elect to hold their own budgets or 'funds'. Prescription medicines constitute an element of the fundholder's budget and a theoretical model...

The introduction of quasi-markets into the public sector suggests that entrepreneurship may have an increasing role to play within the resulting new structures. This article examines the nature of public sector entrepreneurship in the context of the new arrangements for the provision of primary...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a contingent valuation (CV) survey of health care services, designed to illuminate self-interest and benevolence on the part of one sex for the other. Design/methodology/approach In a constructed scenario, men and women recorded how...