Price list planned for operations

Friday, 6 February 2004 12:00 AM

The government has put forward plans to pay set fees for NHS operations.

Under new plans, hospitals in England will receive a fixed national fee for operations ranging from heart bypasses to cataract operations.

The new policy reflects concerns that costs vary dramatically from one hospital to another. This cost difference is even more severe with private hospitals, which receive £100 million to treat 60,000 NHS patients a year as part of efforts to cut waiting lists.

Nearly fifty procedures will have a price fixed for them, and these will be phased in over four years. Foundation hospitals will be given the chance to adopt the price list sooner.

Fixed fees will vary for different operations. Hip replacements will cost £5,568 while breast surgery may cost £2,386.

If the policy works it will see inefficient hospitals run up losses and find themselves under pressure to cut costs. Meanwhile hospitals that can provide services for less than the fixed fees will be able to spend their spare money on new equipment or staff.

Health Minister John Hutton claimed that the new system will "minimise bureaucracy and unnecessary transaction costs" and allow trusts to turn their attention to "quality and speed of access".

However, critics of the proposals suggest that the pressures caused by the tariffs may lead to cuts in services at hospitals under financial pressure.

The British Medical Association has raised concern that the figures chosen may be "far lower" than the actual cost of the treatment.

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