Resource Allocation Working Party
The Resource Allocation Working Party was a group set up within the
Background
Between 1948 and 1968 NHS financial allocations were essentially based on sequential inflation uplifts. A
Owen established the Resource Allocation Working Party (RAWP), to examine the possibilities of a better funding formula. It came to the conclusion that Standardised Mortality Ratios were a reasonable indicator of regional variations in health care needs in the acute sector. The Report of the Working Party also emphasised the need to develop and apply positive preventive measures such as promoting changes in smoking habits and improving the environments in which people live and work.
The
The four Metropolitan Thames Regional Health Authorities and most of the London Teaching Hospitals were disadvantaged by, and unhappy about, the new formula. The simplicity and transparency of the formula made it difficult for politicians to manipulate. The idea that mortality should be used to influence the distribution of health resources was questioned on the grounds that most health care is provided for people who do not die. The formula devised by the Resource Allocation Working Party survived until 1989 and did reduce the funding gap between the Northern regions and London. It was replaced by a more complex formula announced in the publication of Working for Patients in 1989,and there have since been further changes and debate, particularly about the relative weighting to be given to old age, which favours more prosperous Southern areas, and deprivation which favours poorer Northern areas.[2]
See also
References
- ISBN 0-10-176150-3. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-78347-018-1.
Gatrell, A.C. (2002) Geographies of Health: an Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.