Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the NHS budget allocated to (a) diabetes, (b) cancer, (c) dementia and (d) cardiovascular disease.

Jane Ellison

NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups, which are responsible for distributing that funding in line with local clinical need. Funding is not generally allocated by disease area.

However, the following table shows the most recent figures collated by NHS England on Primary Care Trust (PCT) expenditure in 2012-13 on diabetes, cancer, organic mental health disorders (including dementia) and problems of circulation (including cardiovascular disease). These figures exclude strategic health authority and arm’s length body expenditure.

NHS England has also identified around £90 million annually that is available nationally to the National Health Service to support timely diagnosis of dementia and to ensure that by 2015, two-thirds of people with dementia have a diagnosis and receive appropriate support following diagnosis.

Notes on interpretation:

Expenditure data included here is taken from the 2012-13 programme budgeting returns. Programme budgeting returns are based on a subset of PCT accounts data and represent a subset of overall NHS expenditure data.

Calculating programme budgeting data is complex and not all healthcare activity or services can be classified directly to a programme budgeting category or care setting. When it is not possible to reasonably estimate a programme budgeting category, expenditure is classified as “Other”. Expenditure on General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services cannot be reasonably estimated at disease specific level, and is separately identified as a subcategory of “Other” expenditure.

The allocation of expenditure to programme budgeting subcategories is not always straightforward, and subcategory level data should therefore be used with caution.

Estimates of expenditure are calculated using price paid for specific activities and services purchased form healthcare providers. PCTs follow standard guidance, procedures and mappings when calculating programme budgeting data.