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. Measures of Central Control 14. It has, from the outset, been the policy of the Minister to allow a wide measure of independence to hospital authorities, subject to central guidance on matters of major policy and necessary measures for controlling expenditure. The main instruments of that control are now :— {1) Determination of Funds to be Provided and Approval of Estimates 15. Under the current procedure (which has developed since the early years of the Service), Regional Hospital Boards and Boards of Governors are asked to provide a forecast of expenditure for the forthcoming financial year showing :— (a) the amount required to maintain services at the level they are likely to reach by the end of the current financial year, and (5) the amount required for urgent improvements and developments, of which details are requested. 16. These forecasts are scrutinised and discussed by the Ministry with the Treasury, and, after Ministers have decided the total amount to be included for hospital running costs in the National Health Service Estimate, each Board is told in February how much the Minister proposes to allocate for the forthcoming year for the services for which it is responsible, subject to the ultimate approval by Parliament of the total provision included in the National Health Service Estimate. It is told at the same time that, except for wage or price changes not covered by the allocation, for which if necessary a supplementary estimate will later be presented, all expenditure, from whatever cause, must be contained within the allocation. 17. The principles on which allocations are made to Boards have varied according to the circumstances of the time but in recent years allocations have been based on estimates of the amount necessary to enable Boards to maintain during the coming year the level of services expected to be reached by the end of the current year. Provision for new developments in the coming year has been made in various ways :— (a) each Regional Board has been allocated a sum based on their estimates of the additional expenditure expected to be incurred on new capital developments : (b} special arrangements have been made for dealing with sums intended to be used for particular purposes, e.g., for 1955-56 additional funds were provided to enable the standard of building maintenance to be improved and arrangements were made to see that proportionately larger sums were alloceted to Boards whose expenditure on this service was low; similarly for 1956-57 additional money was made available to improve the standard of feeding in mental and mental deficiency hospitals and proportionately greater sums were allotted to Boards where the standard of feeding was specially low ; fc) any sum available for general improvement has been distributed generally in such a wav as to give a slight advantage to Regional Boards with the lowest ratio of expenditure per head of population. (Boards of Governors have been dealt with specially.) A small reserve has been retained centrally to meet contingencies and to enable additional allocations to ‘be made during the vear to Boards of Governors which have incurred additional expenditure from the completion, and bringing into operation, of new capital developments. 18. Each Regional Hospital Board, after any necessary discussion with its Management Committees, decides what part of the regional allocation to keep for its own services and how much to allocate to each Committee; and then asks each Committee to prepare, for the Board’s approval, detailed estimates within its own allocation. Each Regional Board prepares detailed estimates for its own services for the Minister’s approval, as does also each Board of Governors.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182466_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
