Example public health service dissertation topic 6:

Efficiency versus patient care: The on-going appropriateness of local community-based hospitals

There is a general assumption within the NHS that patients like to be treated ‘near home’. This, it is further suggested, is allied to the issues such as visiting, families assisting with hospital care, and being close to relatives. However, the provision of services at a local level may not always be in the ‘best care’ interests of the patient. Rather, this dissertation suggests that there is value in considering the case for patients to be true wherever possible in the best centres for the particular illness for which they are being treated. Such a change in service delivery would bring with it a number of social difficulties but are these, this dissertation suggests, a price worth paying for more efficient treatment?

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Scottish Government (2006) Developing community hospitals: A strategy for Scotland. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government.
• Shortell, S.M., Washington, P.K. and Baxter, R.J. (2009) ‘The contribution of hospitals and health care systems to community health’, Annual Review of Public Health, Vol. 30, pp. 373-383.