Summary
This NHS Confederation briefing (Issue 275) offers guidance to commissioners, and providers of NHS-funded care, who are introducing personal health budgets.
“A personal health budget is an amount of money to support a person’s health and wellbeing needs, planned and agreed between the person and their local NHS team”. (p.2)
Reference
A wealth of information: your questions on personal health budgets answered. London: NHS Confederation, September 2014 [August 29th 2014]. Issue 275.
Potential Misspending / Abuse of Personal Health Budgets
The GPs’ Pulse magazine used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to investigate how personal health budgets were actually spent in England in 2014-15. The British Medical Association has some reservations about potentially inappropriate use of scarce NHS resources on non-evidence based therapies.
Reference
NHS personal health budgets spent on ‘patient treats’. London: BBC Health News, September 1st 2015.
This relates to:
Reference
Price, C. (2015). Revealed: NHS funding splashed on holidays, games consoles and summer houses. Online: Pulse, September 1st 2015.
A Zero-Sum Game?
There are also predictable concerns, given limitations in NHS funding, that personal health budgets could begin to de-stabilise some established services; perhaps resulting in the de-commissioning of pre-existing services.
Reference
Price, C. (2015). Personal health budgets scheme forces mental health centre closure. Online: Pulse, August 11th 2015.
