Fund‐holding and contracting for community nursing services: a selective review of the literature

Abstract

In the context of social, political and economic pressures fund-holding has been described as the 'wild card' in the Health Care Reforms in the United Kingdom of the 1990s. Set against an international drive to reform health care and increase the efficient and effective use of resources, fund-holding by general practice is seen as one means of enhancing the contribution of a primary care led National Health Service (NHS). It is advocated that a primary care led NHS will enhance and strengthen the position of nursing in the health care context. In order to fully exploit such a position it is argued that primary care nurses must adopt a systems view, recognizing broader strategic issues upon which to base marketing approaches to the contracting process.

District nurses’ role in palliative care provision: A realist review

“…Whilst this prioritisation may enhance the care of palliative care patients, it is not known whether this is in fact the case, nor the impact on non-palliative care patients on the district nurse caseload. Again, this prioritisation is likely to have clear benefits for the district nurse, gaining acceptance and status from the kudos of caring for dying patients, to counter their general impression of themselves as invisible and undervalued (Livesey, 1998;Glendinning et al, 2002;English National Board and Queens Nursing Institute, 2002). District nurses are generally unclear about how their work fits into the policy agenda and where focus of their role should be (Bennett and Robinson, 2005;Madsen, 2009), and possibly they find the provision of palliative care at home as a role that they can 'own'.…”

Involvement of family nurses in home visits during an 8-year period encompassing primary healthcare reforms in Poland

“…However, in Central and Eastern European countries, there is scarce information in the literature pertaining to family nurses, and issues about contracting for community nursing services have not been discussed. Based on a selective review of the literature on contracting for community nursing services in the British National Health Service, Livesey (1998) wrote that ‘whatever the implications of direct contracting for community nursing there is increasing evidence to suggest that nurses are in a strong position to influence the purchasing of their services’.…”