The health sector regulator is looking into how important acute services are provided by hospitals in other countries including France, Germany, Canada and America to see what lessons the NHS can learn.

Monitor will examine how other countries set clinical standards and set out to achieve good quality care in a range of services including stroke, maternity, and A&E.

The analysis will lead to examples of models of care which can be adapted by the NHS to deliver equivalent or better services more efficiently.

Amy Caldwell-Nichols, Project Director at Monitor said:

The challenges facing our NHS are well known and it is accepted that we must change and improve in order to survive.

We think there could be practical lessons that the NHS can learn from other countries.

As part of the project, which follows on from the Facing the Future: smaller acute providers report published in June 2014, Monitor will share the comparative evidence on acute providers and its findings later this year.