Alan Garber: The quest for efficiency in the English NHS

In this presentation Professor Alan Garber, the next Provost of Harvard University, considers the quest for efficiency in the English NHS.  He reflects on the challenge that health care poses to the wealthy nations of the world, and examines what he considers to be the three essential components required to achieve efficiency: competition, integration and performance-based incentives.

Professor Garber goes on to compare the different approaches to health care reform adopted in the US and the UK, despite similar goals of improving health, giving physicians and hospitals more financial responsibility, and measuring and rewarding quality.

Professor Garber is the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University where he directs the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research.  He is the current Nuffield Trust Rock Carling Fellow – a Fellowship that was established in memory of the late Sir Ernest Rock Carling.

Professor Garber delivered his Rock Carling lecture at the Nuffield Trust’s annual reception in July 2011.