New formula for GP prescribing budgets

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7230.266

BMJ 2000;320:266-266 ( 29 January )

Editorials

New formula for GP prescribing budgets

General practitioners in England need to understand its implications

General practice pp 284 , 288

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

In today's BMJ Rice and colleagues describe the derivation of a formula for allocating prescribing budgets to health authoritiesand primary care groups in England (p 284).¹ The formula isbased on the most comprehensive analysis of general practice prescribingcosts so far and $---$ despite criticisms such as those outlined byBaines et al on p 288² $---$ is likely to be the best available forthe foreseeable future. The new formula will be used to help settarget allocations and has several importantimplications.

Firstly, the new formula represents a major change in the methods used to allocate NHS budgets. The various formulas currentlyused have four main components: a population count; weightingsfor age and sex; measures of health need; and a component forunavoidable factors. The most important is the population count.Traditionally the population counts have been the estimated residentpopulation for each health authority. The . . . [Full text of this article]

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