Public expenditure on health and personal social Services 2007 : Memorandum received from the Department of Health containing replies to a written questionnaire from the Committee, written Evidence

This memorandum contains the replies received from the Department of Health to a series of questions tabled by the Select Committee, on a wide range of issues grouped under the headings of: current issues including NHS staffing; salaries and wages of non-NHS staff; retirement projections, dental and medical staff payscales; also included are; general expenditure issues; NHS resources and activity; personal social services resources and activity; capital expenditure and investment and questions on the departmental annual report

This memorandum contains the replies received from the Department of Health to a series of questions tabled by the Select Committee, on a wide range of issues grouped under the headings of: expenditure; investment, including the private finance initiative (PFI); NHS Plan and reforms, including staffing, pay and contracts, treatment outside the NHS, and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE); breakdown of spending programme; activity, performance and efficiency; and departmental annual report.

Do you understand the 'New NHS'? This new text is an indispensable guide to how health care is delivered in Britain today.

Dated May 2007. On cover: Departmental report. The health and personal social services programmes

Staffing costs account for 70 per cent of NHS funding and the effectiveness of its workforce in large part determines the overall effectiveness of the health service. Workforce planning is the key means for the NHS to understand and anticipate the impact of demographic, technological and policy trends on future service requirements. However, workforce planning in also a challenging and complex issue, in light of social and technological changes, as well as the lengthy timescale involved in training staff (at least three years for most health professions and up to twenty years for some senior doctors). The Committee's report examines the effectiveness of current workforce planning activities, including clinical and managerial staff, particularly in the light of reported deficits in NHS organisations, and how it should be done in the future, including the following issues: workforce developments since 1999, the impact of the European Work Time Directive and increasing international competition for staff, retention and recruitment issues, examples of good practice, how to ensure flexibility in system arrangements, and whether planning should be centralised or decentralised.

This report examines in detail the 2004-05 revenue situation of NHS organisations and considers key financial management and reporting issues facing the NHS both currently and in the future. Jointly prepared by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission, the report incorporates the findings of their audit work on the NHS summarised accounts, the consolidated account of NHS foundation trusts, the Department of Health's resource account and the accounts of individual NHS organisations, as well as the unaudited NHS revenue out-turn for 2005-06 as reported by the Department of Health and Monitor. Findings include that in 2004-05, the Department reported a deficit across the NHS as a whole for the first time since 1999-2000, with an aggregate overspend for all NHS bodies of £251.2 million, with 171 out of 615 bodies recording a deficit or overspend, with 68 out of 259 NHS trusts failing to break even, and with 90 out of 303 primary care trusts exceeding their revenue resource limits.

What is the relationship between politics and health policy in the UK? How are the interests of the medical profession, civil society and the state weighed and balanced in the making of health policy? Health Policy and Politics offers a sophisticated critical analysis of policy-making in the National Health Service. The team of contributors comprises established academics who have been actively involved in both research and policy-making in this field. They examine the 'macro' level of policy-making at governmental level, and then consider professional institutional relationships and struggles, and interpersonal decision-making and power relations within small organizations and departments. Unique in the variety of perspectives and topics covered, the volume will be required reading for those teaching and studying on a range of courses in health, social care and public policy, and for health professionals within the NHS.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.