Health Management and Policy Alert

How finance teams are helping to reduce health inequalities

Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) - 

This briefing explores the work that finance teams are doing to help reduce health inequalities. There are three main ways finance staff are supporting this important agenda: allocating resources differently to support specific population needs; aligning data sets, tackling variation and reducing inefficiency; and investing in targeted projects which focus on specific groups. The briefing looks at eight case studies from across the UK, considers lessons learned and explores and how other organisations and systems can draw on good practice. Finance teams can have a significant impact on patient access, outcomes and experience as well as value by supporting and pushing forward the health inequalities agenda.

• Briefing
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The societal and economic costs of preventable cancers in the UK

Frontier Economics - 

The key findings estimate that the total cost of UK preventable cancer cases diagnosed in 2023 is £78 billion, equating to 3.5 per cent of annual GDP. For new cases diagnosed between 2023 to 2040, the total cost is £1.26 trillion. This equates to an annual cost of at least £61 billion in each of these years in real, discounted 2023£. This study was undertaken by Frontier Economics for the Guardian.

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Creating better health value: understanding the economic impact of NHS spending by care setting

NHS Confederation - 

This research (commissioned by the NHS Confederation and conducted by Carnall Farrar) examines where the greatest returns on investment from spending in the NHS can come from to impact the wider domestic economy. It shows that when high levels of funding are ploughed into primary and community care the economic gains are significant. In the five years between 2015 and 2019 those localities in England that most increased NHS spend in primary and community care experienced far higher gross value added (GVA) growth in their areas than those that spent the least on these services.

• Report
• Associated briefing
• Press release

Proposed review of the 2023 scheme to control the cost of branded health service medicines

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 

The DHSC proposes to amend the statutory scheme controling the cost of branded health service medicines. The consultation sets out proposed amendments in three main areas: increasing the allowed growth rate which will have the effect of changing the payment percentages; revising which sales of branded medicines are exempt from scheme payments; and a new approach to control spending on older branded medicines (the ‘lifecycle adjustment’). This consultation document seeks views on the proposals, particularly from the pharmaceutical industry and NHS patients. The consultation closes at 11am on 10 October 2023.

• Consultation document
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How much public spending does each area receive? Local authority level estimates of health, police, school and local government spending

Institute for Fiscal Studies - 

This report estimates the level of funding for key public services (the NHS, schools, local government, the police and public health) in each local authority area in England in 2022-23 and compares the relative levels of funding different areas receive to estimates of their relative spending needs. It finds substantial differences between the share of funding areas receive, and the share they would receive if funding was allocated in line with their different levels of need.

• Report
• Press release

SAS professional development funding: application guidance

NHS Employers -
To support the implementation of the new 2021 specialty doctor and specialist contracts and the professional development of specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors (SAS) doctors, NHS England included the SAS development funding in 2021/22 and 2023/24 within commissioner allocations. This guidance has been published in partnership with the British Medical Association to support employers to allocate SAS development funding.

• Guidance

DHSC counter-fraud strategy: 2023 to 2026

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 

This counter-fraud strategy provides a co-ordinated activity programme that aims to tackle the underlying factors which allow fraud to be committed by: improving the building and sharing of counter-fraud knowledge; tackling the most harmful threats; disrupting and punishing fraudsters; and enhancing our long-term capability to prevent fraud.

• Strategy
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Kidney disease: a UK public health emergency - the health economics of kidney disease to 2033

Kidney Research UK -
This report looks at the growing costs of kidney disease, both in treating patients and in money lost to the economy by people being left unable to work due to time-consuming and gruelling treatment. It finds that kidney disease is costing the UK economy £7 billion a year, costs which could rise to £13.9 billion in just ten years. It contains projections that the NHS could see capacity for dialysis treatment overwhelmed unless the disease becomes a government priority.

• Report
• Kidney Research UK - news

The distribution of public service spending

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - 

This commentary for the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities sets out what is known about the distribution of spending on major public services, and how and why this changed over time. It also explains the key conceptual and methodological issues involved in such analysis and identifies key lessons for policy and avenues for future research.

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Waiting for prosperity: modelling the economic benefits of reducing elective waiting lists in the NHS

Institute for Public Policy Research - 

This report (produced together with LCP Health Analytics) finds that getting people off waiting lists would bring benefits equivalent to £73 billion between now and 2027. The case for reducing waiting lists for non-emergency hospital treatment has historically been made with reference to the human cost but the report examines for the first time the diverse economic benefits of tackling the backlog, including putting a value on non-monetary benefits not included in traditional measures of economic output (GDP).

• Report
• Press release