Background

The Scottish National Tariff Project was set up in November 2005 to create a list of prices for hospital procedures carried out by one NHS Board for patients who live in another NHS Board area. The objectives of the project are to:

• create a set of standard prices for most procedures to simplify the process for service level agreements between Boards
• create a system that is transparent and fair, and takes into account both volume and case-mix complexity
• create an incentive for efficiency by encouraging benchmarking among Boards, and
• improve the accuracy of financial data by ensuring better recording of both cost and activity data.

The publication of the "Better Health, Better Care: Action Plan"   in December 2007 has renewed and updated the focus of the Scottish National Tariff project. The Action Plan sets out a new vision for the NHS in Scotland where the Scottish people and NHS staff are partners or co-owners of the NHS. This more mutual approach will shift ownership and accountability to the people of Scotland.

The "Better Health, Better Care: Action Plan" states that the NHS Scotland Efficiency and Productivity Programme has been established and that it will take forward further work on "national tariffs that reflect the value of procedures carried out by one NHS Board on behalf of another and act as a spur to greater efficiency".

The tariff policy has been introduced in planned stages over the past three years.  This phased implementation allows the Scottish Government Health Directorates and Health Boards to monitor the impact of the tariff and to change working practice accordingly. The Government is monitoring the implementation of tariffs closely, benchmarking Boards against the tariff and ensuring that data quality improves over time.

Project Development

The aim of this collaborative project between ISD and the Scottish Government Health Directorates is to develop the methodology to create Scottish National Tariffs. The resulting tariffs are based on Scottish Reference Costs (that provide unit cost information on a wide range of treatments and procedures delivered to NHS Scotland patients).  These costs will only be applied to cross boundary flows (i.e. where patients resident in one Health Board area are treated in another Health Board).

This site contains

• information about the methodology, key features and a list of tariffs which represent the average cost of providing healthcare in NHS Scotland
• links to a range of relevant publications and websites
• contacts for the Scottish National Tariff project

ISD currently provides information about Scottish Health Service Costs via

• the Scottish Health Service Costs (Costs Book)