ABSTRACT
There are two approaches to financing health care. The global approach concentrates on the total amount of money provided, while a more specific approach considers whether the money available is being put to best use. This chapter examines the second approach and assess how far the money spent on public health care achieves the objectives behind the spending. Resourcing generally means providing money. Organizations need different kinds of resources, such as buildings, equipment or staff, and sometimes an organization's problems are immediately financial. By the 1990s a different kind of rationing had moved up the agenda, partly as a result of the growing importance of management, and partly as a result of the financial disciplines introduced by the internal market. Medical audit, evidence-based medicine, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence are in themselves rationing devices, but they do add to the stock of information which would be relevant to a rationing process.
