Page last updated: 24-NOV-2009

Costs

ONS kitemarkStatistical Publication Notice

24 November 2009

Scottish Health Service Costs, year ended 31st March 2009.

INTRODUCTION

Scottish Health Service Costs publication (the Costs Book) provides a detailed analysis of where resources are spent in NHSScotland (NHSS).
 
The NHSS is primarily organised into 14 health boards and 8 special health boards, along with the Mental Welfare Commission and the Mental Health Tribunal.  The net operating cost of these bodies recorded in their annual accounts for 2008/09 amounted to almost £10 billion. 
 
The Costs Book 2009 detailed reports are structured to analyse around 93% of this total, presenting information on the 14 geographic boards and two special boards (State Hospital and Golden Jubilee National Hospital) that provide hospital and community care directly to patients.  

KEY POINTS

  • Costs Book 2009 analyses £9.3 billion of board operating costs
  • NHSS is a major employer with a pay bill of over £4.6 billion for staff working in the hospital and community services
  • Almost £1.3 billion was spent by NHS boards on prescription drugs used in hospitals and dispensed in community pharmacies. This amounts to 14.2% of total operating costs and is the equivalent of £247 for every person in Scotland.

DETAILED FINDINGS

Costs Book contains large amounts of data.  The following examples show the range of information available:

  • Hospital department - expenditures
    £5.4 billion spent on hospital services, including:
    • £108 million on cleaning, an increase of £8.1 million from 2008
    • £84 million on catering, an increase of £6.5 million
    • £87.7 million on heat and light, an increase of 22.8%
    • £1.4 million a year on average to run an operating theatre for 26 hours per week
    • £230 million on 3.12 million examinations for x-rays and scans
  • Average cost per hospital patient
    • Attendance at A&E department   £100
    • Attendance at an outpatient clinic   £112
    • Attendance for MRI scan    £232
    • Attendance for day surgery    £740
    • Admission as a surgical inpatient   £3,016
    • Admission to intensive care    £8,137

Within the publication, hospital data is available for over 250 individual NHSS locations.

  • Community services
    £1.4 billion spent on community care, including:
    • £73.3 million on child health
    • £7.0 million on home dialysis
    • £85 million on GP out of hours service
    • £40 million on community midwifery 
  • Family health services
    • £701 million on primary medical services, provided at more than 1,000 GP practices
    • £315 million on NHS dental care provided to 3.3 million registered patients
    • £85 million on High Street ophthalmic services providing 1.7 million sight tests
    • £1.12 billion on pharmaceutical services provided at 1,207 pharmacies supplying £933 million of prescription drugs

Within the publication, data for community and family health services is available for the 14 NHS Boards.

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MAIN CONTACTS:

Brian Reid
Principal Information Analyst
0131 275 6707
brianreid@nhs.net

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PRE-RELEASE ACCESS:

Under terms of the "Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008", ISD are obliged to publish information on those receiving Pre-Release Access ("Pre-Release Access" refers to statistics in their final form prior to publication). The standard maximum Pre-Release Access is five working days. Shown below are details of those receiving standard Pre-Release Access and, separately, those receiving extended Pre-Release Access.
 
Standard (five day) Pre-Release Access:
Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division)
NHS Board Chief Executives
NHS Board Communication leads
NHS Board Directors of Finance
 
Extended Pre-Release Access:
Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division)
This extended Pre-Release Access is given to a small number of named individuals in the Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division). This Pre-Release Access is for the sole purpose of enabling that department to gain an understanding of the statistics prior to briefing others in Scottish Government (during the period of standard Pre-Release Access).
 
 
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HISTORY OF THIS PUBLICATION:

Last Published: November 2008
Next Due: November 2010
Data Available Since: Web publications since 1999/2000

 


Main contact: Email Brian Reid