CIMA: NHS costings system ‘too complex’
CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is an advocate of activity based costing and has created a report to provide NHS trusts with the facts behind Service Level Reporting (SLR) and Patient Level Information and Costing (PLICs).
On the one hand Service Level Reporting is advocated by Monitor while the more detailed Patient Level Information and Costing is supported by the Department of Health. CIMA, which has more members in the public sector than any other accounting body, has produced a report with the CIMA NHS Working Group to harness current thinking on both costings initiatives.
The NHS currently faces the challenge of lower levels of financial growth than it has seen in recent years and, with increasing public expectations, the importance of performance management and improved efficiency has never been higher.
CIMA chief executive, Charles Tilley, who is also a non-executive director at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, explains:
“Both SLR and PLICs provide intensely useful performance management tools to enable Trusts to achieve increased efficiency, and enhanced, more effective financial control and decision making, especially in light of the expected squeeze on public expenditure. However, with increasing levels of sophistication comes additional complexity and the ability of finance staff to analyse this data will be crucial.”