Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Nursing Ethics
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hirskyj, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hirskyj, P.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
Medline Plus Health Information
*Patient Safety
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

QALY: An Ethical Issue that Dare Not Speak its Name

Peter Hirskyj

Cardiff School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, Cardiff University, Room 3.1, Ty Dewi Sant, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK. Tel: +44 (0)29 2074 2265; Fax: +44 (0)29 2074 3883; hirskyj{at}cf.ac.uk

The current British Government's policy towards resource allocation for health care has been informed by the commissioned Wanless Report. This makes a case for the use of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) to form a rationale for resourcing health care and has implications for the staff and patients who work in and use the health service. This article offers a definition of the term ‘QALY’ and considers some of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to resource distribution. An account is also given of an alternative formula, the DALY (disability adjusted life years), which can address some of the problems that are associated with QALYs. The values of the public, patients and nurses are identified and linked to the potential effect of a QALY formula. The implications of QALY use are applied to the health care of patients and a discussion is offered with regard to whether this method of resource allocation can be considered as just.

Key Words: NHS • nursing • patients • public • QALY • values

Nursing Ethics, Vol. 14, No. 1, 72-82 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0969733007071360
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?