Public/Private Partnerships in Health in the UK: Theory and Practice

One of the most fundamental and the oldest issues in the provision of health care throughout the world has been the issue of the role of the public and private sector of health care, and the relationship between them. This paper describes issues associated with the concept of health oriented partnerships in the United Kingdom and seeks to contrast public and private partnerships both in health and in health care. In the United Kingdom it is suggested that health care is conceived by the population to equate to the National Health Service(NHS) with "add on" private health care for certain sectors of the community and within certain well defined clinical parameters. This paper can provide us with valuable information on the characteristics of UK health care systems, current health policies as well as issues relating to the public and private partnerships in health/ health care in the UK, thus offer important policy implications for the improvement of Korean health care system which lacks health-oriented coordinations and partnership between public and private sector very considerably.