White paper

About: White paper is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3852 publications have been published within this topic receiving 51169 citations. The topic is also known as: White paper & White papers.

Higher education reform: conflict of interest or enhanced experience?

Abstract: The path that nurse education in the UK has taken since it moved into the higher education (HE) system in the early 1990s has been directly influenced, not only by Department of Health policy, but also by changes to the way in which HE is structured and managed. The White Paper Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2011a) outlined the coalition Government’s plans to encourage better standards of teaching in HE and greater responsiveness to student experience. The reforms promote competition and contestability between HE institutions to attract students and recommend removing barriers for new providers to enter the market. The decision to introduce a strong business model for HE has a number of implications for nurse education, both in the way that it is delivered and how student nurses are positioned among their peers. There is a potential conflict of interest between the student as a source of income for the HE institution and the student nurse as a member of a professional organization dedicated to ensuring the safety of the public. The decision to make it easier for alternative providers to obtain degree awarding powers could also encourage providers to take greater ownership of healthcare qualifications in the future.

China's New Military Strategy: 'Winning Informationized Local Wars'

Abstract: In May 2015, the new Defense White Paper, China’s Military Strategy, reveals that China has now officially adjusted its military strategy. This follows previous practice, such as when the 2004 strategic guideline was publicly confirmed in China’s defense white paper published in December 2004. In China’s approach to military affairs, the military strategic guideline represents China’s national military strategy. It provides authoritative guidance from the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for all aspects of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) combat-related activities. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, China has issued eight strategic guidelines (军事战略方针). The 2015 Defense White Paper reveals that a ninth change has occurred. The new guidelines shift the goal of China’s military strategy from “winning local wars under the conditions of informationization” to “winning informationized local wars.” The change in the strategic guidelines reflects an evolution of the existing strategy, not a dramatic departure.

Does the new NHS need personal medical services pilots?: They offer a testbed for primary care trusts

Abstract: At the time of its publication in late 1996 the Choice and Opportunity white paper was seen as heralding revolutionary changes in British general practice.1 The “listening exercise” by the then health minister, Stephen Dorrell, had identified once more the inflexibility of existing contractual arrangements as a major barrier to remedying poor quality primary care, particularly in inner cities. The Primary Care Act, squeezed through in the final weeks of the last government, allowed health authorities scope for the first time to commission primary care from any local provider within the NHS family, better tailored to meet local needs. Proposals were invited to pilot these new arrangements, though the possibility of experimenting with unified budgets for general medical services and hospital and community services was suspended. Altogether 567 bids of various shapes and sizes were received initially. After a protracted selection process 94 quietly went live in April last year. More white papers and much else have happened since the launch of this policy initiative. So do the personal medical services pilots …

Making Health Care Markets Work: Competition Policy for Health Care

Abstract: The U.S. health care system does not work as well as it could, or should. Prices are high and vary in seemingly incoherent ways, yet quality of care is uneven, and the system lacks the innovation and dynamism that characterizes much of the rest of our economy. The dearth of competition in our health care markets is a key reason for this dysfunction. There is a growing understanding that comprehensive efforts to control health care costs and improve the quality of care must address the functioning of the markets that undergird the health care system and the prices paid to providers. Ensuring that markets function efficiently is central to an effective health system that provides high quality, accessible, and affordable care. A large body of evidence shows that patients, employers, and private insurers pay more for health care in highly consolidated provider markets — for instance, where only one or two hospital systems exist. Higher health care costs lead to higher premiums, making insurance more expensive and less affordable. Even in public programs, such as Medicare, a lack of competition among providers is associated with lower quality care. The same is true of health insurance — it has been extensively documented that less competition leads to higher premiums. Each of us has been concerned about competition for quite some time. Earlier this fall, we convened a meeting supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and co-sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, to formulate ideas for actionable policies that public and private stakeholders can implement to improve the functioning of health care markets. Approximately 40 academics, industry stakeholders, and federal and state government officials participated in the meeting, which produced focused, practical proposals. This white paper reflects the authors’ recommendations, taking the discussion at the meeting into account, without any attempt either to summarize the meeting or to associate the participants with these views. We propose a new “competition policy” for health care that involves multiple actors at the federal and the state level: the White House and state governors, federal and state executive agencies, and federal and state legislatures, as well as the federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies traditionally focused on competition. Inattention to the impact of policies on consolidation may have unwittingly put the U.S. on a path to less competition in health care markets; addressing it will require broader action and attention beyond antitrust enforcement as well. Pursuing this agenda will allow health care markets to function more efficiently, leading to higher quality, more accessible, and lower-cost care. We focus on policies to enable and support competition by health care organizations. We propose specific, actionable policies to maintain and enhance the competitiveness of health care markets, promote entry by new competitors and remove barriers to entry, and prevent anticompetitive practices. We think these policies can have an immediate and meaningful impact. We note that these are non-partisan policies that can elicit support from across the political spectrum.

Accident prevention: the health visitor's role.

Abstract: The health of the nation white paper sets targets in five key areas for reductions in both mortality and morbidity: coronary heart disease and stroke, cancers, mental illness, HIV/Aids and sexual health and accidents. In a series of articles in Health visitor, experts will be considering the opportunities the white paper offers for community nurses in each of the key areas. Here Dr Sara Levene, medical consultant to the Child Accident Prevention Trust, considers accidents, a major problem which health visitors can do much to control. She reviews how accidents are presented in the white paper, what health visitors can do and what resources are available to help them. She offers particular advice on special accident prevention initiatives and discusses some of the opportunities created by the white paper. Language: en