BMA starts healthcare funding review

British Medical Journal, March 4, 2000 by Linda Beecham

The BMA has started its review of healthcare funding with the first meeting of a steering group this week (1 January, p 62). The group includes representatives of patients' and consumers' organisations, private health care, and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as of doctors and nurses.

In considering how health care in the United Kingdom should be funded, the review will consider what kind of health service the public wants and needs; what resources would be required to provide this; and whether the resources could be provided under existing or alternative funding arrangements.

The group will be chaired by the chairman of the BMA council, Dr Ian Bogle, and, as well as the chairpersons of the main standing committees and national councils of the BMA, it will include Trevor Jones, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry; Sheila McKechnie, managing director of the Consumers Association; Professor Roddy MacSween, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges; Deborah Rozansky, director of corporate affairs at the Royal College of Nursing; Stephen Thornton, chief executive, NHS Confederation; and Andrew Vallance-Owen, medical director of the British United Provident Association.

The group will be supported by technical experts in economics, finance, and health services organisation. The review is expected to take a year, and Dr Bogle said that he hoped that it would be a very open process. "I want to encourage ownership of this review by other organisations and I believe the process of the review--the conduct of a public debate--is as important, if not more important, than the final report."