Recent Articles in Blog

UK's commissioning revolution
Jul 14, 2010

Putting commissioning, or the buying of services, in the hands of general practitioners (family doctors) is likely to be highly beneficial for the private sector and could create a new £1bn commissioning market.

Wanted: reliable, long-term partners (private equity need not apply)
Jul 8, 2010

Private equity is secretive, short-termist and in it for big profits (bigger the better). Given that many healthcare service companies depend almost entirely on the public sector as the payor, this doesn’t make private equity an ideal investor, does it? We look at other types of partner.

The swing to the right
Jul 2, 2010

European voters have switched to parties and politicians who, they believe, can avoid them ending uu in the mess Greece is now in. That is very good news for the private sector.

Why holistic clinics are the future
Jun 23, 2010

Holistic clinics, which bring together a series of specialists, from surgeons to physiotherapists, to treat a specific condition, (anything from coronary conditions to pelvic floor) are tiny today. But they are the future. Here’s why.

Big tobacco, arms manufacturers and private healthcare
Jun 16, 2010

It is depressing how uninformed the debate is about the effectiveness of the private healthcare sector. The industry probably ranks close to tobacco and the arms industry in the mind of most European citizens. Even more depressing is the way very few policymakers, academics and opinion formers have any grasp of the cost effectiveness the sector offers in countries like Spain, France, Italy and Germany, where it carries out huge volumes of work paid for by public funds at demonstrably lower prices than the public sector.