Spring Newsletter 2026

Message from Peter Sivey (ESHCRU Director)

Welcome to the Spring 2026 edition of the ESHCRU newsletter. First, I want to pay tribute to Professor Anne Mason, who stepped down as ESHCRU Director and retired from the University of York at the end of 2025. Anne has made an enormous contribution to ESHCRU and to the Centre for Health Economics over many years, and I am delighted that this has been recognised through her appointment as Emerita Professor. On behalf of everyone involved in ESHCRU, I would like to thank Anne for her leadership and commitment in helping to build such a strong foundation for the Unit with many successes in research and policy impact. I am honoured to have assumed the role of Director from January 2026, and we are also pleased to welcome Dr Rita Santos to the management team.

We are now starting a new work programme with eight projects developed in close collaboration with colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. Alongside this new programme, ESHCRU continues to engage in high quality responsive work to support current policy needs. At present, this includes advising on the review of the Carr-Hill formula for funding GP practices, and helping to design financial incentives to improve emergency care delivery.

Our current and recent work also shows the value of sustained engagement with policy colleagues. In the last year, ESHCRU evidence on elective waiting times was cited by the Public Accounts Committee, and our work on community diagnostic centres contributed to NHS England’s submission to the government’s spending review. At the same time, ESHCRU has continued to develop important work at the health and social care interface. For example, our project on housing quality and falls among older people highlighted the potentially large costs associated with preventable falls, and underlined the importance of prevention and joined-up thinking across services.  These are strong examples of the way ESHCRU aims to provide timely, policy-relevant research that is both rigorous and useful.

More broadly, 2025 was a very productive year for the Unit, with completed projects, a wide range of outputs, and extensive presentations and briefings to policy and academic audiences. I would like to thank everyone across ESHCRU for the energy, care and hard work that has gone into this, and I look forward to working with colleagues across York, LSE, DHSC and NHS England as we take this next stage of the programme forward.

Dissemination and engagement

Published outputs

Publications are detailed on the ESHCRU website. Recent outputs include:

• The evidence on outcomes of rehabilitation and reablement support: a rapid literature review • Henderson C, Byrd W, Mohomed A, Wistow G and Fernández, JL. • CPEC Working Paper (12) • Download Publication
• The effect of waiting times on health outcomes for coronary bypass and angioplasty • Arabadzhyan A, Santos R, Siciliani L. • Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization • Download Publication
• Inequality in provider and patient-initiated healthcare cancellations during Covid-19 • Jacob N, Arabadzhyan A, Kasteridis P, Mason A, Rice N • Economics & Human Biology • Download Publication
• The effect of community diagnostic centres on volume and waiting time for diagnostic procedures in the UK – March 2025 Update • Sivey P, Wen J • Download Publication
• Can financial incentives shift health care from an inpatient to an outpatient setting? • Grašič K, Siciliani L, Wen J. • CHE Research Paper 201 • Download Publication
• Paying for Health Gains Using Patient Reported Outcome Measures • Siciliani L, Gaughan J, Gutacker N, Gravelle H, Chalkley M. • Health Economics • Download Publication

Research summaries on ESHCRU work

• Who cancels? Inequalities in cancellations of care during the pandemic • Jacob N, Arabadzhyan A, Kasteridis P, Mason A, Rice N • CHE Research Summary 57  • Download Publication

Presentations

• Avoidable drivers of falls among older people: The impact of housing quality and characteristics • Cartagena-Farías J • Policy Unit in Adult Social Care webinar series • 5 November 2025. 
• Demand for Community Health Services and Interaction with Hospital Services • Wittenberg R • Presentation to NHS England Strategy Team • 13 November 2025. 

• • The causal impact of trolley time on patient outcomes (PhD project) • Xu H • Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Seminar • 10 December 2025.
  • Stranded in EDs: The Impact of Trolley Time on Patient Outcomes (PhD project) • Xu H • Health Economists’ Study Group (HESG), York • 14 January 2026.
  • Does hospital ownership affect length of stay in England? A two-part model (PhD project) • Palacio Ciro S • Health Economists’ Study Group (HESG), York • 14 January 2026.
  • Community Diagnostic Centres and Tests and Treatments • Sivey P, Gao N • Meeting with  Cancer Policy Research Unit • 6 February 2026.
  • Demand for Community Health Services and Interaction with Hospital Services • Wittenberg R • Seminar Series: Health Mission Relevant Research from NIHR’s Policy Research Units • 23 February 2026.
  • Is caring productive? The effect of Adult Social Care on paid production in England • Longo F • Social Care Economics Network (SCENE) • 24 February 2026.

• Integrated Care Systems Collaboration and Incentives Framework: A Primary Care centric perspective • Santos R, Gaughan J • Presentation to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) • 15 April 2026.

• When home is a dangerous place: The cost of falls among older people living in the community • Cartagena-Farías J • Q-Connect Network at the LSE Health Policy Lab • 21 April 2026.
• Tests and treatments: the link between diagnostic procedures and inpatient care • Sivey P, Gao N • Meeting with  Cancer Policy Research Unit • 27 April 2026.
  

New Work Programme

We have developed 8 new projects in collaboration with colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. Please see the plain English summaries of each project below. Many thanks to members of our PPI Panel who helped to review the summaries. 

• Can Assistive Technology use in care homes help reduce avoidable/unnecessary hospital admissions? What do we know, and what’s missing?
• What has been the impact of the Better Care Fund on outcomes for people using both NHS health care and local authority social care?
• Increased diagnostic testing in emergency care: effects on hospital performance and patient outcomes.
• Demand for Community Health Services and Interaction with Hospital Services and Adult Social Care Services (Extension).
• Impact of the bowel screening age-extension on secondary-care activity in England.
• Variations and impact of intermediate care related services.
• Right Procedure Right Place – Moving care out of hospital.
• Advice on the optimal design of financial incentives in emergency care.

PPIE news

Dr James Gaughan led the PPI training session in Health Econometrics for members of our PPI Panel. Since being shared on YouTube, the session has received excellent feedback. Many thanks to James for developing this session, as well as to the PPI Panel and PPI Governance Group members for their invaluable role in reviewing and refining the content.  

Many thanks to our PPI Governance Group members for their continued support and guidance. At our recent meeting on 19 May,  we discussed how to successfully capture, implement and feed back on PPI impact into projects. 

Our PPI Payment Policy has been updated to reflect a 10% uplift to payments, ensuring our rates remain fully aligned with the latest NIHR recommendations.

Stakeholder engagement

The Oversight Group met in November where the new project proposals were discussed and approved and the ESHCRU team heard about new DHSC policy priorities. 

The LSE Advisory Group held two meetings on 10 October 2025 and 1 December 2025 and included presentations and discussions on the following projects:

• What is the impact of changes in funding of long term care on delayed discharge, costs and outcomes for critical care patients?
• Avoidable drivers of falls and injuries among older people.
• Demand for Community Health Services and Interaction with Hospital Services.
• NHS care home commissioning, acute care performance and local care markets.

The York Advisory Group met on 17 December where the new projects at York  were discussed and presentations were provided on Future health care demand and the compression or expansion of morbidity and Tests and treatments: the link between diagnostic procedures and inpatient care. 

We are very grateful to all our Advisory Group members for their continued support and interest in our work.

ESHCRU Team Meeting: 6 May, London

Our team meeting for all ESHCRU’s researchers from the LSE and York took place at the LSE. All of the current projects were discussed during the morning session.

The afternoon session was dedicated to discussing how to improve policy impact with our DHSC Liaison Officer Roxy Smith and NIHR Senior Programme Manager, Maria Chisholm.

Many thanks to the research team for all their hard work, commitment and enthusiasm. Particular thanks to Roxy Smith and Maria Chisholm for their fantastic contribution to the day.  

Website and Comms

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