LESS FOG ON THE TYNE - PROGRAM BUDGETING IN NEWCASTLE AND NORTH TYNESIDE

Programme Budgeting (PB) has been widely promoted as a model for the b etter conduct of the work of Health Authorities in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. This paper reports on a project which looked at the development of PB in Newcastle and North Tyneside Health Authority (NNTHA), concentrating on the construction of a computerise d tool for the compilation and analysis of programme budgets. The main activities carried out were a survey of user requirements for PB, a s urvey of data availability, the collection of data to construct progra mme budgets, and development of a relational database for storing and manipulating PB information. The main source of data was the Contract Minimum Data Set, which was supplemented by data from a number of othe r sources to give comprehensive information on spending in NNTHA. Cost ed activity data were produced, which could be aggregated in a large n umber of ways, such as by care setting (inpatient, outpatient, communi ty, general practice, etc.), disease group (ICD9 chapter headings), ca se mix (Healthcare Resource Groups) and socio-demographic variables (a ge/sex, locality of GPs practice). (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland L td.