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Allyson Pollock

Publications and source records attributed to Allyson Pollock.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Catching waves: the historical geography of the general practice fundholding initiative in England and Wales.

General practitioner fundholding is often represented as one of the more successful elements of the 1989/90 Conservative reforms of the UK National Health Service (NHS). Successive annual 'waves' of fundholding practices were approved from 1990 through to 1997 and, over time, the initiative came to involve some 50% of UK general practitioners. Fundholding is known to have had a strong regional geography that changed with evolving fundholding eligibility criteria. Further, there have been persistent allegations that fundholding tended to occur disproportionately in areas of higher social status. Past studies of fundholding have tended to consider single waves or the overall impact of the initiative rather than its development over time. They have also tended to work at a single geographic scale or through single-region case studies when exploring the statistical regularities underlying the uptake of fundholding. Using multilevel analysis, this paper seeks to enhance understanding of fundholding through an examination of the interaction of district health authority and practice characteristics across all implemented waves for all general medical practices in England and Wales. We conclude that wave mattered on a national scale, that deprivation was relatively unimportant and that there were certain types of area that exhibited persistent but unexpected high uptake.

Capitation Fee↗
PubMed2002

How are primary care groups approaching clinical governance? A review of clinical governance plans from primary care groups in London.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate how primary care groups (PCGs) were implementing clinical governance in their first year. METHODS: A structured review was carried out of clinical governance plans of 57 PCGs in London. RESULTS: There was considerable variation in content of the plans. Priority areas were generally based on national service frameworks and local health improvement plans. The most commonly included clinical topic was coronary heart disease. Plans tended to focus on quality improvement rather than on dealing with poor performance. There was generally little information on how quality would be monitored, the data required and methods to change clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Clinical governance plans provide the main public record of PCGs' attempts to improve quality but there is considerable variation in the content of these reports. Plans should provide reliable and comparable data on progress in implementing quality improvement strategies and dealing with poor performance.

Group Practice↗