ABSTRACT
With so many changes taking place in the NHS and in other health care systems around the world (Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development, 1992, 1994), these are interesting times for the study of health care systems. Interest in the changes being made to health care systems comes not only from academics and professionals involved in the health care field, but also from potential consumers of health care. The interest for consumers extends not only to whether it is possible to improve the operation of health care systems, but also to whether there is any risk of the system actually functioning less well as a result of the proposed changes. Both aversion to the risk of things going wrong and an assessment of the size of the risks involved are natural concerns of potential consumers of health care.
