ABSTRACT
Information in the National Health Service (NHS) too often occupies a secret space. A special issue of Economic Affairs concerned with pharmaceuticals and government policy recently demonstrated that restrictions in information and services contradict the rhetoric of the NHS about access and equality and indeed remain a strong feature of it. Until there is individual, financially empowered choice the NHS seems unlikely to make the necessary investment in publishing good information. The vertical integration of the NHS – with government or its agents as single-payer, insurer, purchaser and provider – has disabled genuine information and its use. This is a necessary consequence of government setting funding levels and prices, controlling coverage and benefits, and rationing the processes for delivering care. The success of informed markets in meeting the wishes of consumers is a reality in all our lives.
