Published on: 2nd February 2012
The Office of Health Economics (OHE) published its report on competition in the NHS on 31 January 2012. It highlights that evidence regarding the potential costs and the potential benefits of choice and competition in the healthcare sector is beginning to emerge. Monitor welcomes this report as a helpful contribution to the evidence base that can be drawn on.
Commenting on the report, Dr David Bennett, Chair of Monitor, said: "both choice and competition are tools that commissioners will decide where and when to use and this report suggests that they could help deliver improved outcomes for patients. However, there are also risks associated with unfettered competition. Monitor’s proposed duties under the Health and Social Care Bill will ensure that, where competition does take place, we can apply the existing Principles and Rules of Cooperation and Competition (PRCC) to ensure that competition operates so that it benefits patients.
"The OHE report also examines the widely debated relationship between competition and integration. The OHE do not believe that competition is likely to hamper integration, citing examples of commissioning that has used competition to drive better integration between acute and community services. Monitor will give this evidence careful consideration, along with that from other sources, when identifying ways in which we can fulfil our proposed duty to enable the integration of care."