Framing in policy processes: A case study from hospital planning in the National Health Service in England (January 2015)

Summary

This paper in the journal Social Science & Medicine reports from an ethnographic study of hospital planning in England between 2006 and 2009. The authors explored how a policy to centralise hospital services was promoted in national policy documents, how this shifted over time and how it was translated in practice. They found that policy texts defined hospital planning as a clinical issue and framed decisions to close hospitals or hospital departments as based on the evidence and necessary to ensure safety. They argue that this clinical rationale is sometimes a false reframing of a political motivation, that it constrains public participation in decisions about the delivery and organisation of healthcare, and that it restricts the extent to which alternatives can be considered.