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Reforms to the British National Health Service introduce major changes to how health care will be delivered. The core elements include the creation of new purchaser organizations, Clinical Commissioning Groups, which unlike their predecessors will be able to recruit and reject general practices and their patients without geographical restriction. The Clinical Commissioning Groups are to transition from statutory bodies to freestanding organizations, with most of their functions privatized and an increasingly privatized system of provision. In this paper, we explore the likely consequences of these proposals, drawing in particular on the experience of managed care organizations in the United States, whose approach has influenced the English proposals extensively. We argue that the wrong lessons are being learned and the English reforms are likely to fundamentally undermine the principles on which the British National Health Service was founded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conservative-led government in the United Kingdom is embarking on massive changes to the National Health Service in England. These changes will create a competitive market in both purchasing and provision. Although the opposition Labour Party has stated its intention to repeal the legislation when it regains power, this may be difficult because of provisions of competition law derived from international treaties. Yet there is an alternative, illustrated by the decision of the devolved Scottish government to reject competitive markets in health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenham and Crookham Commons is an unusual place to think about enclosure, given that it was not historically enclosed like many places that surround it. But Greenham, to give it its shorthand term, has an extraordinary late modern history attached to it, and it is that history that forms the basis of this contribution--describing enclosure more as social construct than a physical act, although the physicality of enclosure at Greenham was real for those directly affected by it. In addition to a short contextual essay, the contribution is unusual in another respect: it incorporates a photographic journey, following the fence that once enclosed the Cold War airbase at Greenham. Based on a series of memory walks, the images describe what happened when peace women and others revisited the commons to (re)trace some of their journeys around the base. The series of photographs that emerged from this project constitute: a blurring of past and present; a contemporary mapping of the site by those for whom the fence was a constant presence; and a search for shapes of the past in conflict with the present contours of Greenham. The photographs form part of an ongoing larger film work asking whether the divisions of the past are still embedded in the present and how enclosure is represented at Greenham today, as physical and mental barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill of 2011 on the National Health Service (NHS) in England. They note the bill's movement toward eliminating the NHS through the British Parliament, and facilitating the introduction of a U.S.-style health system. Moreover, the authors cite significant legal consequences of Bill which include weakening the accountability of the Secretary of State to Parliament for the provision of services to patients in the NHS.