NHS England and Monitor offer compromise deal to hospitals on payments for procedures

Healthcare leaders have given a cautious welcome to a “pragmatic” new offer from NHS England and Monitor to settle uncertainty over tariff payments for 2015-16.

But hospital and commissioner organisations said that the interim “compromise” was far from ideal and that payment systems must still be overhauled to be sustainable in the future.

The latest offer would boost providers’ income overall by £500m (€680m; $769m) more than a previous proposal that most hospitals had rejected.1 This includes reduced efficiency targets and £130m towards the cost of emergency hospital admissions.

Earlier this year most NHS hospitals in England rejected the proposed national payment tariff for 2015-16, saying that the terms would leave them unable to guarantee “sustainable and safe care.”1 Monitor and NHS England have now reconsidered the offer, and on 19 February they issued an enhanced tariff option for 2015-16.

NHS England said that it would “ultimately” bear most of the extra costs and give clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) as much as £150m in support to offset additional pressures that …