Vishal Bhavsar reviews an EU study of nearly 3,000 people across 6 EU countries, looking at the treated incidence of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. It helps us better understand who gets psychosis, when, and where.
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This week sees the publication of a new Atlas of Variation, focusing on diagnostic services (in England) for the first time. Readers familiar with the Atlases of Variation will be aware the atlases are designed to highlight variations in services and to encourage commissioners and providers to ask questions to understand if the variations are [read the full story…]
This paper describes the development of a framework to help commissioners make effective decisions with regards to local resource allocation decisions. The aim is to reduce variation in prescribing patterns across England, also known as the ‘postcode lottery.’ While the framework was originally developed by the former National Prescribing Centre, which is now the Medicines [read the full story…]
The authors of this paper found that the way people search for evidence relating to commissioning decisions varies, depending on their professional background. That is why this paper is particularly pertinent to commissioners, policy decision-makers, health managers, and medical librarians, who have the necessary skills to help staff working in commissioning to find the best [read the full story…]
Introduction This study, carried out in Scotland, is relevant to commissioners and general practitioners, as it demonstrates why there are variations in prescribing practice, and how these can be managed. The authors have noticed that there is “significant variation in the quality of prescribing” and they have carried out an ethnographic study into why [read the full story…]
Rational commissioning This report describes a project, led by Right Care, to involve surgeons in the commissioning decision-making process, because observations made by the Department of Health and Surgical Specialty Associations showed that there were inconsistencies in the rates of elective surgical procedures between Primary Care Trusts, and that sometimes existing surgical procedures were “classified [read the full story…]
