Hospital competition is good for patients, and for efficiency

The coalition government has taken great pains to assure the public that the NHS budget will be ‘ring-fenced’, and thus not subject to the cuts of 20 to 40 per cent forecast for other Whitehall departments. At the same time, the NHS still faces (another) restructuring and the need to make significant savings. Zack Cooper considers how recent LSE Health research shows ways forward for the NHS to do more with less in the coming years.