Professor Alan Maynard OBE reviews the validity of the idea that teaching hospitals have higher running costs

Traditionally, it has been argued that university teaching hospitals are more costly to operate. The primary argument to support this assertion is that they have a more complex case-mix.

Is this argument tenable, or is it a case of special interests defending their inefficiency?

Economics teaches us that larger units may have lower costs due to economies of scale and economies of scope. Why are these hospitals exceptions?

Blimey - the Greek government are cutting medicine prices by 25%.

Less surprising that pharma companies are exiting the market.

Just noticed this on BBC News through being overseas. It mIght get some traction in the UK press tomorrow ...

Kingsley Amis once famously wrote in July 1960's Encounter magazine about higher education, "more will mean worse".

If you read this website regularly, you already know that such a belief about healthcare is not at home here.

Hello. Hope you're well and looking forward to a bank holiday weekend full of high-profile policy announcements (just kidding - I hope).

You may remember that I wrote briefly about the hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR) debate some weeks back.

Today, I caught a very good section of BBC Radio 4's consistently excellent More Or Less, about this issue.

You've seen the recent announcement that SHAs are to be abolished (or more likely, to be migrated to regional branches of the independent commissioning board, avoiding redundancy costs).

Which might be thought annoying in regard to my recent interest in why the SHA assurance process appeared to have been stopped in its tracks.

But I would suggest it is not any kind of wild goose chase.

Morning, all.

Southend University Hospitals NHS FT has previously been somewhat famous in NHS managementland as the only foundation trust to date to derogate from Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions, locally negotiating its deal with staff.

The staff voted for this in June 2006, and appear to be generally content. In 2008, all staff got a flat rate £295 "gainshare" bonus each, in recognition for the Trust overall hitting a range of targets.

With acknowldgement to HSJ editor Alastair McLellan for the inspiration (i.e. I nicked his concept), here are a list of what I currently think are the top 26 health policy questions for Secretary of State For Health Andrew Lansley CBE MP.

1. Will GP commissioners or consortia have hard budgets?

It's not unduly newsworthy, but interesting to note that the usually reliable Iain Dale's Diary blog says that the next health select committee will have a Conservative MP in the chair.

NHS London chair Sir Richard Sykes has resigned over Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's over-ruling of the Healthcare For London reconfiguration plans, the Evening Standard reveals.

Sykes' letter of resignation to Lansley states that the resignation is prompted because “our visions of healthcare delivery bear so little in common”. It also says that other NHS London board members are also “considering their positions”.

Good evening. Bit manic today.

Tomorrow, we will discuss how much pro-market people dislike actual capitalism.

For today, you may already have feasted on our fresh serving of Maynard Doctrine, in which The Good Professor considers what sense the government is making with its NICE-defying National Cancer Drugs Fund.

Can you guess what he concludes?