Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
Date:
[1957]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/448 page 87
    26 February, 1957.] {[Continued. to take on some of the surgical work of other areas. It is hoped that increases in provision in Kettering and Reading will also help to lower the gynaecological waiting lists. Mental Health We have many less beds for the treatment of patients suffering from mental illness than the average for the country as a whole, our provision being only 80 per cent. of the average for England and Wales. The Board will remember that we made a case out to the Minister for special consideration on this account, This has led to our having new building projects at St. Crispin, Littlemore and Fair Mile. Our position so far as beds for mental defectives are concerned is rather less than the average for England and Wales but does not compare so unfavourably. For the year 1955 the picture has again been one of overcrowding and the position shows no substantial improvement over the year 1954, but the opening of the two new Admission Units at Fair Mile and Littlemore and the two additional villas at St. Crispin has allowed some improvement. On the mental deficiency side our hope is for continued improvement as more and more beds are brought into use at Bradwell Grove. Medical Staff As has been mentioned earlier, the total number of medical staff shows little change from the previous year. ‘The total volume of work appears to have continued at a high level. The members who attended the Special Board meeting will remember that the papers circulated, showed that the Oxford Region was second highest in costliness of its senior medical staff. It seems quite clear that if the number of discharges per bed in this Region exceeds the average for England and Wales, we might come out a good deal better under this particular heading if we used another method of comparison, say the cost per patient treated. At the moment we are working on figures showing the cost per patient treated in this Region compared with other Regions, but we are not sufficiently advanced to be able to quote figures today. More work has got to be done before these figures can be quoted. Such figures as I have seen, however, do lead me to believe in many instances that our relatively high costs on the medical and nursing staff side may be justified by the turnover of patients. (2) A brief description of the methods by which you implement your financial responsibilities with special reference to steps taken to ensure maximum economy by the Hospital Management Committees in using their current account allocations. The Board’s financial responsibilities fall under two main headings :— (i) expenditure on services administered directly by the Board—on revenue account approximately £1,000,000 p.a., and on capital account approxi- mately £800,000 p.a., and (ii) supervision of the expenditure incurred by Hospital Management Com- mittees on the running of hospitals—approximately £8,000,000 p.a. In regard to (i) the Board exercises its financial control through its Finance Committee acting through the Treasurer, whose responsibilities are laid down in Statutory Instrument 1948, No. 1414, supplemented by a number of Ministry circulars. Approximately three-quarters of the Board’s own expenditure of £1,000,000 is on the salaries and travelling expenses of medical staff. This expenditure is watched very carefully at all stages. The Board’s Regional Medical Establishment Com- mittee give careful consideration to medical staff appointments of all grades and advises the Board thereon. A decision, for instance, to appoint an additional
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3