Estimating the costs of specialised care: updated analysis using data for 2009/10

Research by the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York shows hospitals should receive additional funding in recognition of the higher costs associated with providing some types of specialised care.  

The researchers analyse the impact that specialised care has on costs for 12.9 million NHS patients treated in hospital during 2009/10. Many types of specialised care do not impose significant additional costs. But for some services, patients who received specialised care had higher costs than otherwise similar patients who do not. For example, specialised care for children increases costs by 20%.

Professor Andrew Street, from the University’s Centre for Health Economics, said: “These findings are broadly consistent with what was found when analysing the data for 2008/9. This provides further evidence to support the Department of Health’s direction of travel in setting top-up payments for specialised care.”

A Copy of the full paper is available at: CHE Research Paper 71 (PDF , 325kb)