The Scottish Government

SCOTTISH HEALTH SERVICE COSTS

The Scottish Health Service Costs Book provides financial and related activity information in sets of published tables. The information contained in the Costs Book is primarily derived from Scottish Financial Returns (SFRs), which are completed as part of the annual accounts cycle.

The Costs Book is published via the ISD website and is available to read, or print, in a series of PDF files from the link below -

http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/NHSiS_resource/Costs/costs.htm

NATIONAL COSTING STEERING GROUPThe NCSG was formed in June 2002 to drive forward costing within the NHS. In particular the group is concerned with the development of a national reporting mechanism for activity and costs, which can be used to enhance service planning and decision making across the NHS.

The main aim is to identify the activity performed by the NHS in a way which reflects how and where services are based. Patients in general do not receive speciality based services, they receive disease specific care. This needs to be captured at a national level in order to track service developments, review overall performance against disease specific targets, and to identify service gaps. The costs associated with these services also need to be identified in order to establish baselines and measure the benefits of investment in a way which is meaningful to both providers and users of the services.

Further information can be found on the SHOW web site http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/fpma/costing.htm.