A business approach will reap dividends

The new UK coalition government is making one of the most radical changes to the NHS since it was set up over 60 years ago. From 2013, GP consortia will take over the commissioning of health-care services from primary care trusts. They will be tasked with choosing service providers that offer best value clinical outcomes, with a strong emphasis on patient choice. In essence, this means that service providers will be competing with each other for business. Of course, the rationale behind this, which some consider to be ideologically driven, is that competition is needed to provide the necessary impetus to improve standards and avoid inefficiency. It goes back to the old debate of whether competition or collaboration between providers is the best way forward for the public sector. We shall see...