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]
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.
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![29 January, 1957.] [Continued. payable out of the National Health Insurance Fund. The amount of the receipts is based on the number of contributions payable by insured persons during the year. (d) In accordance with the financial provisions of the National Health Service Act of 1946 superannuation contributions paid by employing bodies and officers employed in the Service are paid into the Exchequer and used towards the cost of the Service ; while, on the other hand, superannuation benefits falling due for payment are charged to the National Health Service Vote and met by the Exchequer. (e) Payments due to be made by car users and insurance companies under the Road Traffic Acts are recoverable by hospital authorities under Part I of the 10th Schedule to the Act of 1946. The maximum amounts recover- able are £50 for inpatient treatment and £5 12s. 6d. for outpatient and emergency treatment. (f) Part of the cost of maintaining an inpatient who is remunerativaly employed outside the hospital may be recovered under Section 28 of the National Health Service (Amendment) Act, 1949. 11. Income of the various types described in paragraphs (b), (c), (d), (e) and (/} appear as Appropriations-in-Aid of the Vote. The transactions of the Hospital Endowments Fund are annually summarised, examined and certified by the Comp- troller and Auditor General and presented to Parliament in accordance with Section 56 of the Act of 1946. A note on income and expenditure relating to non- Exchequer funds generally is included with the foreword to the Summarised Hospital Accounts presented to Parliament each year (see paragraph 13 below). Financial Structure 12. The financial structure of the Service is based on a system of approved annual budgets followed by audited annual accounts. Each Hospital Management Committee is an accounting unit empowered to incur expenditure on the services for which it is responsible within the framework of a budget approved by the Regional Hospital Board before the commencement of the year in which the expenditure is to be incurred. The Regional Hospital Board in turn must contain, both its own revenue expenditure and that of its Hospital Management Committees within a total sum determined by the Minister who also approves the detailed estimates of the Boards’ own expenditure. Provision is made for budgets to be adjusted for wage and price changes (subject to approval by Parliament of any necessary supplementary estimate) and also for revision of estimates later in the year to which they relate, provided that the total sum for the region determined before the commencement of the year (adjusted as necessary for changes in salaries and wages and in prices) is not exceeded. Each Board of Governors is similarly responsible for keeping its expenditure within the total of a budget approved by the Minister. The power to approve transfers between subheads (which is normally done at the revised estimates stage) in the case of Hospital Management Committees was restored to Regional Hospital Boards from the year 1952-53, with the proviso that the total sum available for the region was not to be exceeded, and Regional Boards are responsible also for approving formally the detailed estimates of the Manage- ment Committees. The Minister is responsible for approving the budget of each Regional Hospital Board and Board of Governors, and any transfers between subheads, in the same way. The detailed procedure for the submission and approval of estimates of running costs is described in paragraphs 14 to 23 below. 13. The Service is financed by monthly advances of cash to the Regional Hospital Boards, who in turn advance money to the Hospital Management Committees, and to the Boards of Governors. The amounts debited in the Ministry’s Appropriation Account (Class V.5) are the cash advances to the Boards. The accounts of hospital authorities (which are on an income and expenditure basis) are audited by auditors appointed by the Minister. An annual summary of these accounts is transmitted by the Minister to the Comptroller and Auditor General who examines and certifies them and lays copies, together with his report thereon, before Parliament.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182466_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
