ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of key issues in National Health Service (NHS) finance in relation to policy, procedures and practice changes and business developments including briefing notes and definitions to support Allied Health Professions (AHP) to 'negotiate' the way around the maze of financial and business functions. Approximately 80" of NHS funding is allocated by the Department of Health (DH) to the Primary Care Trust commissioners of healthcare services where it is allocated to hospitals, community and family health services - secondary, tertiary and primary care. Together with this there are a range of smaller budgets, for example, for dental and ophthalmic services, support to the voluntary sector and the running costs of the DH itself. An important element in the implementation of costing and pricing mechanisms is robust data collection analysis, interpretation and conversion to meaningful information. Under patient level costing, costs are identified to individual patients.
