ABSTRACT
In January 2000, two decades of relative resource constraint on the National Health Service were ended by the commitment to raise UK health expenditure to the European average. The 2002 Budget funded a real increase of 43 per cent in NHS spending by 2007/08, thereby raising health expenditure from 6.8 per cent to 9.4 per cent of gross domestic product. Two ambitious reform plans, The NHS Plan (2000) and the Wanless Reports (2001-02), established the framework in which these increases would be implemented.2 Key features have been greater private sector involvement, notably in hospital building under the Private Finance Initiative, and administrative restructuring, such as the removal of hospitals from ministerial control to become ‘foundation trusts’.
