ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of the financing of health services, noting the growth of the National Health Service (NHS) budget and examining the proposal that greater reliance might be placed on health insurance rather than taxation as a source of health service funds. Attention then shifts to a description of government policy in the NHS under a number of headings: primary care, community health and preventive medicine; hospital services and the development of policy on district general hospitals and community hospitals; services for elderly people, mentally handicapped people and mental illness; and maternity and child-care services. There are several main ways of examining the distribution of the health services budget. First, there is the allocation of resources between different geographical areas. Second, there is the distribution of the health services budget between different types of service. The chapter concludes by focusing on joint planning and collaboration between health authorities and local authorities.
