In this interview, Dr Jennifer Dixon, Director of the Nuffield Trust, discusses the performance of the NHS across the four countries of the UK before and after devolution following the publication of the Trust’s latest report on the subject.

Dr Dixon begins by outlining the different approaches to health policy that each of the UK countries have adopted since devolution in 1999 and then discusses the striking differences in performance across a range of indicators, such as waiting times and crude productivity of staff, which are revealed in the Trust’s report.

The unique aspect of the research – a new comparison of the NHS in the 10 English regions with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is summarised by Dr Dixon.  She ends the interview by examining the possible reasons for the differences in performance that are more pronounced when the devolved nations are compared with regions of England that are similar on a range of health and socio-economic indicators.

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