§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will define medical cost inflation; and what has been the rate of medical cost inflation in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [40416]
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Department has no measure of medical cost inflation. Health service specific inflation is calculated as a combination of hospital and community health services pay and price inflation. Pay inflation is defined as the change in units costs for HCHS staff weighted by the share of expenditure on each staff group. Price inflation is defined as the change in the prices of goods and services in the health service weighted according to the share of expenditure on each area.
The table shows HCHS inflation from 1984–85 to 1993–94.
Year HCHS inflation estimate 1984–85 5.8 1985–86 4.9 1986–87 7.0 1987–88 8.5 1988–89 10.6 1989–90 6.3 1990–91 8.7 1991–92 10.1 1992–93 6.9 1993–94 3.4