Reference costs published today for 2010-11 detail the most up to date information about how NHS expenditure was used to provide healthcare by NHS provider organisations.
Reference costs are the unit costs to the NHS of providing healthcare to NHS patients.
The reference costs, give the most detailed picture available about how nearly 400 NHS organisations spent £53 billion delivering healthcare to patients in 2010-11.
The 2010-11 reference costs publications are presented in three ways:
- National schedules of reference costs: These show the national average unit costs derived from the unit costs of NHS providers
- Reference cost index: A measure of the relative efficiency of NHS providers
- Database of source data: This allows a more detailed analysis of organisation level costs.