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Background
The unmet needs pilot studies were announced in 2004, following research on unmet need that was conducted for Sir John Arbuthnott's Standing Committee on Resource Allocation ( SCRA). The announcement recognised that there was evidence that those in the most deprived areas were not accessing healthcare services at the same rate as their more affluent neighbours. SCRA recommended an adjustment to the Arbuthnott formula to take account of unmet need in accessing hospital services in the most deprived areas.
However, it was decided that before any adjustment was made, the pilots should be established to "examine how additional funding can be used to improve access to health services by people from the most deprived areas." The announcement asked for "innovative ideas for addressing unmet health needs and an improvement in access to NHS services by people living in our most deprived areas." Examples of the type of unmet need that the pilots could cover were given as follows:-
- Access by people with coronary heart disease living in deprived areas to a range of services
- Attendance rates at breast screening clinics
- Uptake of winter flu vaccination
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