Yorkshire health chiefs to spell out care costs

The NHS budget now exceeds 100bn nationwide, but surveys suggest few patients have any idea of where that money goes and how much care costs.

Now bosses from NHS East Riding of Yorkshire are underlining in meetings with the public the cost of care, which can vary from 59 for a basic visit to casualty to nearly 6,000 for a hip replacement.

Officials say they hope they can influence the behaviour of patients in accessing care – for instance by reducing the numbers visiting accident and emergency (A&E) units.

The move also aims to encourage NHS staff save money. Family doctors are being encouraged to prescribe non-branded medicines.

NHS East Riding of Yorkshire chairman Karen Knapton said she believed people would use services more appropriately if they knew the costs involved.

"The NHS is free at the point of use, and it's quite right that it should be, but I think people believe there is a never-ending pot of money," she said.

"When you look at it our budget of 450m that sounds as though we have enough money to do everything for everybody but we have to deliver services within our budget.

"I think people would value the NHS even more if they realised how much it costs to deliver all the services, particularly as expectations increase.

"People are always surprised about how much these things cost."

She highlighted significant numbers of people who visit A&E for treatment when they could be better treated in a minor injury unit, by their GP or a pharmacy.

"Not only does it clog up the system for people who really do need A&E but it all adds to the cost as well," she said.

"People with chronic chest problems are quite often rushed into hospital for 24-48 hours. They are stabilised and then are back out again into the community. Each one of these episodes costs around 1,800."

She said the primary care trust had set up a community respiratory team working with other healthcare staff to manage patients better and treat them before they need hospital admission which had already led to sizeable reductions in patient stays in hospital.

The switch offered people better care out of hospital but the money saved could also be reinvested in services.

She said savings worth millions could be made by switching from branded to generic items.

"We have done a lot of work with our GPs and they are coming up trumps," she said.

"We have to think in this economic climate about how we are going to make savings."

Statins, which are used to treat heart problems, diabetes and strokes, cost 18-28 per packet for branded items which is up to 340 per year.

But non-branded drugs cost between 95p and 1.37 a packet – less than a maximum of 17 a year.

In the East Riding there are around 34,000 patients who might benefit from statins. If GPs believe it is clinically safe to do so, this could save the NHS around 1.7m a year.