Alan Maynard is professor of health economics, University of York

Monday 21 July 2008

The trouble with incentives is that they work, but they may produce changes in behaviour that are at once welcome and perverse.

Take, for instance, the fines announced in December 2007 for NHS trusts that fail to hit their C.Difficile targets. These fines are potentially large, up to £3.5 million for unsuccessful trusts. Faced by such fines, managers are striving very hard to improve the performance of their hospitals - just as Ministers hoped they would.

Alan Maynard is professor of health economics, University of York

Monday 7 July 2008

During the Wilson government in the mid-1970s, clinical practice variations were identified as a major problem. They remain so today, with the Darzi report, High-Quality Healthcare For All, demanding change because similar patients with similar needs get very different treatment.