How was NHS funded? what were the recommendation of the 'crossman' Formular in 197?

Answer 1

The NHS is, and continues to be, funded in part from taxation and from National Insurance Contributions. In recent years private finance has been brought in - the Private Finance Initiative - whereby the private sector builds, say, a hospital and leases it back to the Government. - meaning that we are landing our children with massive interest charges to pay in future years (something Mr Brown never tells us) . The Crossman formula is this:-

The Crossman Formula 1971-1975
8. In 1971/2 a formula based on objective criteria was introduced to guide the
distribution of HCHS revenue resources. The "Crossman formula" (although it
was actually implemented by the then Conservative Government) was directly
aimed at removing Regional inequalities in the hospital service within a
measurable time (ten years). In summary, the "Crossman formula" derived each
Regional Health Board's 'target' allocation towards which its actual allocations
were gradually to move (as in later RAWP) from three elements:
(a) Population - weighted by the national bed occupancy rate for different age
and sex groups and adjusted for patient flows;
(b) Beds - in each speciality weighted by the national average cost per bed per
year;
(c) Cases - inpatient, outpatient and day cases weighted by the national
average cost per case.
9. Thus the Crossman formula represented a compromise between population
indicators of need and the maintenance of the existing pattern of provision.
Other features of the new approach worth noting are:
(a) no explicit overriding principle of resource allocation - for example 'equal
opportunity of access for equal need';
(b) for the first time: transparent/explicit/objective criteria used for resource
allocation;
(c) judgement still played a part - the population factor was given an arbitrary
double weight so that the relative contribution to the 'target' of the three
elements was: population, 0.5, beds and cases 0.25 respectively;
(d) morbidity and socio-economic factors absent from the formula;
(e) formula related to HCHS only - no attempt to incorporate GMS or local
authority services;
(f) an explicit pace-of-change policy - targets to be reached over a ten year
period;
(g) no related mechanism to ensure that finance was spent in a specified
manner - ie formula concerned with means not ends.

That is copied from a Government Paper RAWP4 which is available in full at dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/idcplg?...&dID=9436&Rendition=Web

For more on PFIs in the NHS see:-

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Procurementandproposals/Publicprivatepartnership/Privatefinanceinitiative/index.htm

(although this is a Government page and biased)

For another ( anti but also biased) view see:-
http://www.sinnfein.ie/policies/document/151