Spatial resource allocation and state practice: The case of health service planning in London

Abstract

Eyles J., Smith D. M. and Woods K. J. (1982) Spatial resource allocation and state practice: the case of health service planning in London, Reg. Studies 16, 239–53. After initially describing the welfare approach to spatial resource allocation, some of the taken-for-granted views on the nature of state and administrative practice are addressed. These assumptions are accepted for a discussion of the nature of health care provision in London and an analysis of the Resource Allocation Working Party's and London Hospital Planning Consortium's plans for such provision. A critical assessment is made of these plans, it being argued that a broader approach, emphasising both class inequalities in health status and the nature and functions of the capitalist state, may point to the limitations of both resource provision and plan-making.