Population figures for capitation formulas need to be designed differently

EDITOR—The organisation of health care through primary care groups with unified cash limited budgets raises several questions concerning the methods of resource allocation that will be used. The presumption is that there will be some form of weighted capitation, and this will obviously generate considerable agonising—and eventual compromise—among the doyens of resource allocations formulas 1 2; but there is one basic point which has to be resolved even before those discussions can start: what is the correct population base?

The formulas …