A lack of reliable data on the cost of outpatient and community services is hampering commissioners’ attempts to make efficiency savings by moving care out of the acute sector.
The Audit Commission and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants have published Costing Care Pathways: understanding the cost of the diabetes care pathway. It concludes that while moving care out of hospitals “might be intuitively better for patients” it has proven “difficult to cost or measure”.
Mark Millar, ACCA council member and chief executive of Milton Keynes Hospital Foundation Trust, said the lack of information made planning for efficiency savings “enormously difficult”.
Despite these reservations, researchers said some nationally available data could be used to chart local spending. Looking at diabetes, they said data could be used to track changes in pathways and their impact on costs as well as to compare costs between primary care trusts.
The research found the average PCT inpatient spend varied from £19-£175 per diabetic patient, with similar large variations between PCTs for community and outpatient costs.
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