Personal healthcare budgets: what can England learn from the Netherlands?

Abstract

The English Department of Health proposes to allow people who need continuing care to purchase the services and equipment they think are most appropriate through personal budgets. Yet the Netherlands, which has had a similar system, is in the process of restricting it in the light of problems that have arisen. Ewout van Ginneken, Peter P Groenewegen, and Martin McKee examine what has gone wrong and how England could avoid the same mistakes