Research into purchasing health care: time to face the challenge.

Purchasing health care is at the core of the reforms of the UK NHS and yet there is little research evidence on which the policy is based. Research in this area is hampered by a lack of clarity over the aims of purchasing and the pace of change within the NHS. Purchasing developments such as general practice fund-holding are proceeding without a large scale evaluation of their impact. At a national level a research effort is required to investigate this key area of the NHS reforms.