• The health unit was set up to facilitate informed and impartial debate among key stakeholders, patients, and the grassroots of the medical profession, in order to help build consensus on the future of health care in the UK.


• Our research aims to bring fresh thinking to problems facing the NHS through careful analysis and a consideration of what can be learnt from other health systems.


• From this, we endeavour to generate evidence-based ideas that are committed to high-quality, universal, safe and integrated health care, provided by clinicians whose first concern is patients.

News: Young Civitas for Medics
September 2009
Civitas Health Unit launches Young Civitas for Medics, a new society that aims to engage medical students in debates about the future of health care and develop critical thinking skills.

Publication: Markets in health care: the theory behind the policy
- James Gubb, Oliver Meller-Herbert, 18 December 2009
In its current state, the NHS functions on the basis of what has been variously called a quasi, mimic or internal market, where providers - NHS, voluntary and private - are theoretically competing and placed on an even footing. With debate around this principle intensifying, this paper revisits the anticipated benefits of the use of market mechanisms; asks on what theory they rest; and where the NHS currently stands.

Event: Homeless health: a blight on this house
- Charles Fraser, Dr Philip Reid, Sir David Varney, Dr Jim O'Connell, 21 April 2009

Briefing: President Obama should look to Europe
- James Gubb, 14 August 2009
The NHS has been caught up in a media storm around the US health care debate. But evidence suggests European health systems perform better than both the NHS and the US.

Article: Competition: The Key to Good Health Care
- James Gubb, Forbes.com, 3 September 2009
The debate between public and private is an artificial one. The key, instead, is to nurture competition in a system that provides for universal coverage and more equitable access.

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