De realidades distintas, necessidades transversais: um estudo comparativo entre um hospital público português e um hospital público inglês

Reducing costs in the healthcare sector represents one of the biggest challenges for its management because as this is central to the sustainability of the sector its operationalization process must never jeopardize the quality of the service provided. Despite its relevance, this issue has received little attention from researchers even though this being a problem that affects several countries regardless of their health financing models. The purpose of this study is a comparative analysis of the main constraints reported by members of a Portuguese public hospital and an English public hospital, in order to identify perceived difficulties and what strategies have been adopted to reduce costs. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study using the case study to establish a comparative approach. From its results we highlight the central role of healthcare professionals, the restructuring of care provision, the correct use of services by users, waste and benchmarking as central areas of action for cost reduction without compromising quality, pointing out as relevant intervention focuses for future studies.