Independent organisations did show concern over resource allocation. The Acton Society Trust, for example, was a non-profit-making Trust set up to promote economic, political and social research, and deriving its income mainly from the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust. Its investigation of hospital organisation was conducted by T. E. Chester, later Professor of Social Administration at Manchester University. In the late 1950s, the Trust noted that Treasury officials had admitted to the Select Committee on Estimates that the amounts available for hospital building had been inadequate, and the calibre of individual Ministers could have a decisive effect on the demands to finance the ‘developmental’ aspect of the budget. It noted there was some levelling up for regions with below average resources, and some evidence in the 1950s that poorer regions had increased their percentage share of the total revenue and capital allocations. The question the Trust posed was whether this ‘levelling up’ had gone far enough, and if it had been done fairly. Nevertheless, inequalities in resource allocation were not a major source of concern. The Trust argued that the Ministry had acted ‘sensibly and fairly’ on the basis of the empirical evidence available and, while certain hospitals and RHBs had been favoured, attempts to have applied more egalitarian policies would have been ‘very dangerous’.42 Again, it seemed more concerned about hospital efficiency than resource allocation. 228 John Welshman, The Resource Allocation Working Party, Financing Medicine The British experience since 1750 Edited by Martin Gorsky and Sally Sheard
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:16:01 +0000
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