How much have you cost the NHS?

Dowbocop wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Carlos wrote:I've always wondered where the costs come from. I know that's a bit of a daft question but I'd like to see a breakdown of, for example why it costs £1500 to have Wisdom Teeth out. The Dentist gets paid either way so labour costs are out. If the equipment used and chemicals required costs so much I'd love to see what manufacturers charge and where they get those figures from.

Im not trying to sound like it should be cheaper; I'd just like to know the breakdown of where that money is going.

I imagine the labour is included in the number, using some kind of cost allocation method. It wouldn't make sense not to really.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/ ... #heading-1

There are tariffs for each procedure which each trust uses to charge the local CCG (I think that's who they charge, don't really know, but they charge SOMEONE ). There's a spreadsheet on that page I linked to with some prices. So, for instance, on p8 of that document, if a smoker gets admitted to a ward and they take up an offer of smoking cessation, the trust can charge the CCG about £100 (£400 if the patient is pregnant) for provision of that service. That price has to cover both the equipment used/given and the workforce's time to provide and administer that service. It's why trusts hate operating theatres having dead time - they're paying a surgeon, anaesthetist and scrub nurses etc to be there but they aren't going to be able to charge the CCG to pay for them!

Prices for drugs are in the British National Formulary - https://bnf.nice.org.uk/. Some of the prices are outrageous - until the other day my son was on medicine that was over £450 per bottle. It was in the top ten of most expensive things in our house and the GP once rang us up to make sure he needed it (like this was our idea and not a prescription from a consultant at Alder Hey ). Some patients with wet macular degeneration will be on intravitreal injections costing the best part of a grand, and will have racked up dozens of injections in each eye. The NHS, being an absolutely humongous customer, will obviously try to get bulk discounts on drugs to try and keep costs down.

Carlos wrote:

Dowbocop wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Carlos wrote:I've always wondered where the costs come from. I know that's a bit of a daft question but I'd like to see a breakdown of, for example why it costs £1500 to have Wisdom Teeth out. The Dentist gets paid either way so labour costs are out. If the equipment used and chemicals required costs so much I'd love to see what manufacturers charge and where they get those figures from.

Im not trying to sound like it should be cheaper; I'd just like to know the breakdown of where that money is going.

I imagine the labour is included in the number, using some kind of cost allocation method. It wouldn't make sense not to really.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/ ... #heading-1

There are tariffs for each procedure which each trust uses to charge the local CCG (I think that's who they charge, don't really know, but they charge SOMEONE ). There's a spreadsheet on that page I linked to with some prices. So, for instance, on p8 of that document, if a smoker gets admitted to a ward and they take up an offer of smoking cessation, the trust can charge the CCG about £100 (£400 if the patient is pregnant) for provision of that service. That price has to cover both the equipment used/given and the workforce's time to provide and administer that service. It's why trusts hate operating theatres having dead time - they're paying a surgeon, anaesthetist and scrub nurses etc to be there but they aren't going to be able to charge the CCG to pay for them!

Prices for drugs are in the British National Formulary - https://bnf.nice.org.uk/. Some of the prices are outrageous - until the other day my son was on medicine that was over £450 per bottle. It was in the top ten of most expensive things in our house and the GP once rang us up to make sure he needed it (like this was our idea and not a prescription from a consultant at Alder Hey ). Some patients with wet macular degeneration will be on intravitreal injections costing the best part of a grand, and will have racked up dozens of injections in each eye. The NHS, being an absolutely humongous customer, will obviously try to get bulk discounts on drugs to try and keep costs down.

Medication prices I assume are just controlled by big Pharma?

rinks wrote:What is the point of that calculator? There are so many things missed off (such as cancer operations and treatment) that it’s going to hugely understate many people’s received benefit. Including the contribution calculator then makes the NHS look like bad value.

And Go Compare get paid for every person they sign up to private health care.

Dowbocop wrote:Prices for drugs are in the British National Formulary - https://bnf.nice.org.uk/. Some of the prices are outrageous - until the other day my son was on medicine that was over £450 per bottle. It was in the top ten of most expensive things in our house and the GP once rang us up to make sure he needed it (like this was our idea and not a prescription from a consultant at Alder Hey ). Some patients with wet macular degeneration will be on intravitreal injections costing the best part of a grand, and will have racked up dozens of injections in each eye. The NHS, being an absolutely humongous customer, will obviously try to get bulk discounts on drugs to try and keep costs down.

jiggles wrote:The primary reason drug prices are able to go so high is really because it’s not supposed to be the end user footing the bill. The pricing is aimed at insurance companies and government bodies. Of course, if you live in a country with poor public heath coverage and don’t have insurance, you’re strawberry floated, but the pharma companies don’t give a gooseberry fool if the people that can’t afford to pay die off because they’re not their customers.

jiggles wrote:I agree they’re greedy banana splits but I’m not sure I follow the logic of “we want the people who can’t pay for our expensive treatments to need them more”

Ironhide wrote:

jiggles wrote:I agree they’re greedy banana splits but I’m not sure I follow the logic of “we want the people who can’t pay for our expensive treatments to need them more”

So the poor stay poor basically, it maintains the poverty (and power) gap which keeps the rich and powerful, rich and, well, powerful.

Stugene wrote:

Ironhide wrote:

jiggles wrote:I agree they’re greedy banana splits but I’m not sure I follow the logic of “we want the people who can’t pay for our expensive treatments to need them more”

So the poor stay poor basically, it maintains the poverty (and power) gap which keeps the rich and powerful, rich and, well, powerful.

^^^^^

jiggles wrote:

Stugene wrote:

Ironhide wrote:

jiggles wrote:I agree they’re greedy banana splits but I’m not sure I follow the logic of “we want the people who can’t pay for our expensive treatments to need them more”

So the poor stay poor basically, it maintains the poverty (and power) gap which keeps the rich and powerful, rich and, well, powerful.

^^^^^

But we’re talking about prices that are in the scale of “I can’t pay that”, not “I can’t accumulate wealth with this expense”. A person in poverty doesn’t get poorer when you charge them thousands a month for treatment. They get dead.

twitter.com/profdaveandress/status/1664358880850190336