The link between health care spending and health outcomes::Evidence from English programme budgeting data

This report describes preliminary results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative. For three years, each Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the English NHS has prepared data on expenditure on health care across 23 ‘programmes’ of care, based on ICD10 disease categories. These programme budgeting data seek to allocate exhaustively to disease categories all items of NHS expenditure, including expenditure on inpatient care, outpatient care, community care, primary care and pharmaceuticals and devices. In 2005 the average size of the programmes varied considerably, with the largest being mental health (£145 per head per year), circulation (£122) and cancer (£75).