Nicholas Mays

Professor of Health Policy

I have diverse experience in the field of health policy. Before coming to the School I had worked in the National Health Service in England (with spells in public health and in representing consumers' interests), in academic health services research (at the Universities of Leicester and London (St Thomas' Hospital Medical School), and the Queen's University of Belfast), in the independent sector (with a think-tank, the King's Fund, where I was director of health services research) and as a civil servant (as a policy adviser with the New Zealand Treasury). I joined the School in May 2003 after almost five years in New Zealand. I maintain a direct involvement in health and wider social policy-making through working for part of each year in either the New Zealand Ministry of Health or the Treasury based in Wellington.

I am also co-editor with Prof Nick Black of the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy (http://www.jhsrp.rsmjournals.com/).

Affiliation

Teaching

I organise the Evidence-Based Policy and Practice Course for students on the Doctor of Public Health Programme which is the School's professional doctorate in public health. I am also involved in various MSc level health policy, health services and health systems Teaching Units.

In 2005 I published an Open University Press text book on the health policy making process with Kent Buse and Gill Walt called, Making health policy. More recently, I published a methods text book entitled, Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative evidence: a guide to methods with Cathy Pope and Jennie Popay in 2007, also published by Open University Press (http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/033521956X.html)

I am particularly interested in supervising research degree students who wish to study the development and implementation of health policies and major health system reforms in high income countries, as well as those interested in evaluating their impact.

Research

I am interested both in the rigorous analysis of contemporary health policy issues (research 'for' policy) as well as research designed to improve understanding of how and why health and wider public policy is made and implemented as it is (research 'on' policy).

Current projects include participation with colleagues at the Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington in an evaluation of the impact of the New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy and on the reintroduction of locally elected district health boards in a newly devolved system in 2001 (reports from the latter can be found at (http://www.vuw.ac.nz/hsrc/reports/new-reports.aspx). I am also undertaking a series of case studies of how health system policy is made at national level in England, starting with the NHS Plan of 2000.

I have a longstanding interest in the role of primary health care in health systems and, in particular, the potential for primary care providers to manage patient demand and resources for specialist services through schemes such as primary care budget holding. I am currently collaborating with colleagues in London from the Nuffield Trust (Judith Smith) and the Institute of Education (Mark Newman) on two NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) Programme-funded projects on the commissioning of health services, one focused on commissioning services for people with long term conditions and the other a systematic review of effective commissioning of public services, comparing health care with other sectors.

In terms of health system comparisons, I am especially interested in the potential for comparative policy analysis of the divergence that has occurred between the NHS in the constituent parts of the United Kingdom since political devolution. I am currently involved with Stephen Peckham (LSHTM) in a research project funded by the NIHR SDO Programme looking at the impact of different patient choice policies in the four countries of the UK (http://www.sdo.lshtm.ac.uk/sdo1472007.html).

My main current involvement in research 'for' policy is as scientific coordinator of a Department of Health-funded programme of evaluation of the latest major reforms of the English NHS which involve patient choice, provider competition through a mixed economy of provision and a new activity-based reimbursement system for hospital services. The programme extends from 2006 to 2012 (http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/hsru/hrep/).

Another major involvement in research 'for' policy is as a member of an LSHTM/LSE team led by Ellen Nolte (RAND Europe) which began in October 2005 to provide an 'on-call' facility for international health care comparisons to support policy development work in the English Department of Health. The facility provides comparative information and analysis to a range of policy makers in the Department (http://www.international-comparisons.org.uk).

With co-editors, Eddy Beck (UNAIDS), Jose Zuniga (IAPAC) and Alan Whiteside (UEA and University of Natal), I completed a book published in 2006 by Oxford University Press entitled, The HIV pandemic: local and global implications. The book is a global review of how health systems have responded to the many challenges thrown up by the HIV pandemic with a view to strengthening future responses. Further details are at http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198528432.

Other recent projects include a book for the Open University Press on methods of research synthesis involving qualitative and quantitative evidence (see above). This builds on a project on research synthesis for policy and management decision-makers undertaken for the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and NHS R&D Programme on Service Delivery and Organisation. This project resulted in a free on-line supplement of the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy on synthesis in July 2005 (see link below) and a more detailed background paper available at http://www.sdo.lshtm.ac.uk/sdo582003.html.

Research areas

  • Health policy
  • Health services research
  • Health systems
  • Organisational research
  • Primary care

Disciplines

  • History
  • Policy analysis
  • Political science

Other interests

  • Health Policy Process
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