Health policy and reform: gathering the evidence

Ideas abound, but robust evidence from health care services research is still scarce

In 2000, 3 years after the election of the Labour Government in Britain, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, launched an ambitious reform program for the National Health Service (NHS), which would make it “the healthcare system the world most envies.” The reform was underpinned by the largest ever investment in the NHS, with spending increasing from £23.7 billion in the 2000–01 financial year to £90.2 billion in 2007–08.1