Devolution and health

This report describes how health policy has changed in the four countries of the UK since the previous Nuffield Trust report in 2003.

Report

Published: 28/01/2008

ISBN: 978-1-905030-25-5

Download the report [PDF 852.1KB]

Devolution in the UK offers a rare opportunity to observe the evolution of four health systems, each starting from a common base. Devolution and Health focuses on how the health systems in the UK’s three devolved administrations have evolved, and how their approaches have differed from those in England, since 2003.

The report concludes that there are indeed forces for divergence among the UK’s different health systems, as the Trust’s previous reports have found. However it also identifies a number of forces which might lead to their re-convergence, forces which may have become stronger in recent years. There is now a contest between the forces of divergence and convergence, the outcome of which is not clear.

The findings in this report suggest that the ‘devolution experiment’ is indeed an important one, both in ensuring that the UK’s health services continue to evolve to meet local and national need, and in enabling all the UK’s health services to develop or adopt good practice to suit the needs of their own populations.

Suggested citation

Jervis P (2008) Devolution and health. Research report. Nuffield Trust.