Impact of Competition Funding in the National Health Services: The Importance of Financial Intelligence

Abstract

The UK healthcare system is primarily taxation funded with very limited funding earned from private patients. There is an ever growing demand of healthcare services and the Government is responsible for catering to these demands within the limited resources available. Over the past decade there have been various reforms brought about in the funding of the healthcare system whereby the key intention is to reduce costs whilst improving efficiency. The Government is trying to do this by encouraging internal market health service providers to compete against each other which ultimately lead to cost reductions and benefits to the wider economy. Most recently there has been a growth spurt in private hospitals and services being commercialised within the NHS. However this has led to various questions concerning cost reductions, quality of services provided and the macro economics of competition within the health sector being raised. This paper discusses the attributes of positive competition within the national health sector and presents the key findings that discuss the ways in which the competition could be leveraged.