Health care technology in the United Kingdom

The UK National Health Service (NHS) is based on the principle that everyone is entitled to any kind of medical treatment for any condition, free of charge. The NHS is funded primarily from general tax revenues. The health service is presently in the middle of a profound change in philosophy and practice. Health authorities have been given specific responsibility for identifying their population's health needs and for using public money to buy services under a specific contract so as to meet those needs. Health care technology assessment (TA) has also developed very rapidly in the UK recently. While the limited budgets of the NHS have controlled expenditures for health care, there has not been a coherent policy for technology development until very recently. During the past decade, awareness of the concepts of appropriateness, effectiveness, and cost-benefit analysis have moved to center stage on the agenda of policy makers. A new R&D strategy in the NHS is emphasizing technology assessment as an aid to choice and management of technology. The increased necessity for making choices, and the increasing availability of results from health care TA, seem to indicate that such research will have an increasing impact on health care and its management.