Dedicated treatment centres in England seem to be treating less complex cases in particular treatment categories than hospitals but are getting the same funding per treatment.

Patients treated in standalone centres dedicated to a small number of high volume elective procedures are less likely to come from deprived areas, have fewer diagnoses, and undergo fewer procedures than hospital patients, concludes a study that was based on data from more than 3.3 million patients (Health Policy doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2009.09.013).

“Our analysis finds evidence that hospitals are treating patients of greater complexity than treatment centres,” say the authors, from the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, and other …