ABSTRACT
Something has to be done about the imbalances in the city’s health services in order to provide better value for Londoners as quickly as possible and to lay the foundations for future development. London’s main health problems apply equally to New York and Paris. Like London, New York has inherited a large number of hospitals, including some of the country’s most prestigious medical centres and medical schools. The core of Paris’s hospital system is the Assistance Publique, with 26 short stay hospitals containing some 20000 beds, more than 20 other facilities, and a home care programme. While the history of Assistance Publique in the past 25 years is a most impressive one, with positive lessons for London about rationalisation of specialist services, it has its dangers as well as its successes. Whatever people’s views are about specific recommendations in the Tomlinson report, there is no doubt that London inherits great medical resources and intractable problems in health care provision.
