Healthcare Resource Allocation, Older Patients and the Law

With a rising level of health needs and increasing life expectancy, the way in which healthcare systems allocate resources within budgetary constraints has led to setting limits on healthcare entitlements. These calls for limit-setting feature arguments for age-based rationing, which have gained increasing significance.

Taking the English NHS as a case study, this book puts forward a novel conceptualisation of justice, promoting dignity and respect for older patients in healthcare resource allocation, that can then be applied to different health systems, evaluating and guiding healthcare resource allocation decision-making. Furthermore, the conceptualisation of justice is adaptable to other protected characteristics beyond age. The work also assesses the legal framework through a lens of justice, identifying and proposing a set of criteria which should be met to serve justice for older patients, appealing to healthcare commissioners and policymakers, and elucidating steps in healthcare resource allocation decision-making. Ultimately, the book develops a healthcare resource allocation guide promoting justice for older patients.

The study will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Health Law, Health Care Management, and Bioethics.