Many economists expressed disbelief after glancing at recent economic statistics. Since the arrival of the virus and the subsequent lockdowns we have observed a never-before-seen decline in production and consumption. In the UK alone, millions of jobs are at risk… Read More »It’s the virus, stupid!
We’ve seen a few editorials and commentaries popping up about the EQ-5D-5L recently, in Health Economics, PharmacoEconomics, and PharmacoEconomics again. All of these articles have – to varying extents – acknowledged the need for NICE to exercise caution in the… Read More »Bad reasons not to use the EQ-5D-5L
Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit… Read More »Sam Watson’s journal round-up for 15th January 2018
By Eleanor MacKillop and Sally Sheard On 27th October 2017, some key British health economists were reunited to discuss the origins and development of their discipline. The event, held at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York,… Read More »Meeting round-up: The Role of the University of York in the Development of Health Economics
I’m beginning to think Jeremy Hunt doesn’t actually care what the evidence says on the weekend effect. Last week, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking criticized Hunt for ‘cherry picking’ evidence with regard to the ‘weekend effect’: that patients admitted at the… Read More »Hawking is right, Jeremy Hunt does egregiously cherry pick the evidence
The ‘weekend effect’ has continued to make headlines since we last posted about it. Last week an open letter to beleaguered Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt was published in The Guardian by a number of prominent scientists and… Read More »Weekend effect redux
The recently delivered Queen’s speech set out the government’s plan for “a 7-day NHS”. This vision is a reaction to alarming statistics that mortality rates are increased by 11% for patients admitted to hospital on a Saturday, and 16% if… Read More »The economics of a 7-day NHS
NICE recently completed their appraisal of the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir. However, as has been reported in the media, NHS England will not be complying with the guidance within the normal time period. The cost of a 24 week course of sofosbuvir is almost… Read More »Sofosbuvir: a fork in the road for NICE?
Thrive: The Power of Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies Hardcover, 384 pages, ISBN: 9781846146053, published 3 July 2014 Amazon / Google Books / Allen Lane Mental illness reduces national income by about 4%, and yet we only spend about 13% of our health… Read More »Review: Thrive (Richard Layard, David Clark)
I was recently questioned about the future of the NHS, during a live debate on the BBC Radio 4 programme Moral Maze, on 9 July 2014. One of the panelists took me to task for being a “bean counter”. I… Read More »Bean counting and the NHS
