We have produced and submitted two reports to the Department of Health reviewing reference costs - the average cost to the NHS of providing a defined service in a given financial year.
Reference costs are submitted each year by every NHS hospital in the country. Our two reports have now been published as part of the Department's wider review of these submissions. The aim of which is to assess the use and quality of data and ensure it is fit for purpose.
Uses of data
The first of our reports covers a review of the uses of reference cost data by NHS bodies. A survey of trusts and primary care trusts found that the data is used locally:
- for benchmarking financial performance;
- to support contracting negotiations; and
- to determine local prices for services not covered by the national tariff under Payment by Results.
Quality of data
The second report summarises a pilot review of the quality of 2008/09 submissions using a sample of 16 trusts (15 acute trusts and one primary care trust). Audits of the data concluded that quality varied across the different categories, with admitted patient care being relatively reliable but areas such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy were more inconsistent. There was also a lack of basic checks on the quality of the data within trusts.
As a result of these reviews, we will begin a programme of auditing reference costs submissions for 2009/10 as part of the PbR data assurance framework in 2010/11. We have also produced a tool allowing each hospital to analyse 2008/09 data and we will be releasing an online version via our award-winning PbR National Benchmarker.