Anaesthetists consume 3% of trust expenditure but affect 60% of trust income

BMJ 1998;317:1587 ( 5 December )

Letters

Anaesthetists consume 3% of trust expenditure but affect 60% of trust income

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The letters on the Audit Commission's report Anaesthesia under Examination¹ from those working in anaesthesia havebeen predictable, varying from those from apoplectic sceptics²to the welcoming. ³ ⁴ Having read these and attended the AuditCommission's day in London, we think that the letters are misinformedand based on an incorrectpremise.

Firstly, the Audit Commission's report must be considered in context. It was commissioned in 1996 by the chief executivesof NHS trusts to provide information on anaesthetists $---$ a groupthat consumed 3% of trust expenditure but affected 60% of trustincome. The report cannot be read without account being takenof the bias implicit in the facts of who the report was writtenfor and who would pay for it. In fact, it looked at the perioperativeperiod, when many workers are involved. As a result of this underlyingdirection to the Audit Commission's investigation, any conclusionsdrawn . . . [Full text of this article]

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