Cost awareness of anaesthetic consumable items among the National Health Service (NHS) staff and the financial impact on the NHS

Journal article


Divekar, Omkaar, Kumar, Abhinav, Divekar, Nandita and Kanegaonkar, Rahul 2024. Cost awareness of anaesthetic consumable items among the National Health Service (NHS) staff and the financial impact on the NHS. Cureus. 16 (7), p. e63906. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.63906
AuthorsDivekar, Omkaar, Kumar, Abhinav, Divekar, Nandita and Kanegaonkar, Rahul
AbstractBackground The financial burden of running the National Health Service (NHS) is high. Staff members should be aware of the cost of the equipment they use to enable efficient use of resources, reduce waste, and control spending. However, limited financial education at undergraduate and junior stages has contributed to relatively poor knowledge among healthcare workers at all levels. Anaesthetics is a speciality which uses a large amount of equipment; therefore, we aim to assess the cost awareness among staff for commonly used consumables. Furthermore, we aim to assess staff members' attitudes towards the financial and environmental impact of the equipment they use and whether this would change their practice. Methodology An electronic survey was sent to staff members from the anaesthetic department of the Medway NHS Foundation Trust during a one-month period. Respondents were asked to estimate the cost of 19 commonly used anaesthetic consumables, with an estimate categorised as correct if it was within 20% of the actual cost. At the end of the survey, there were five questions for respondents to answer regarding the financial and environmental impact of their current healthcare practice and possible alternatives. Results There were 69 respondents within the anaesthetic department from a variety of roles. Overall, only 9.37% of items were estimated correctly, with cheaper items commonly being overestimated and more expensive items being underestimated. Overall, 60% of respondents said the cost of an item would influence their use. The overwhelming majority claimed that the environmental impact was a concern, and most would favour recyclable/reusable alternatives. Conclusions Cost awareness among anaesthetic staff for commonly used equipment is poor. More education and training are necessary in this area as limited knowledge of service costs restricts the ability to make cost-efficient choices which are needed in the current NHS. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024, Divekar et al.]
KeywordsSustainable healthcare; Health economics; Anaesthetics; Cost analyses; Medical education
Year2024
JournalCureus
Journal citation16 (7), p. e63906
PublisherSpringer Nature
ISSN2168-8184
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.63906
Official URLhttps://www.cureus.com/articles/227977-cost-awareness-of-anaesthetic-consumable-items-among-the-national-health-service-nhs-staff-and-the-financial-impact-on-the-nhs#!/
Publication dates
Online05 Jul 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted04 Jul 2024
Deposited19 Aug 2024
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