Quarts out of pint pots -- expanding the pint. Clinical budgeting in practice

Clinical budgeting is the process whereby clinical users are charged for the resources they use. A system for recharging users for the costs of tests was introduced at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, in 1995, and has been in operation since. The system has allowed pathology to maintain budgetary balance, has automatically compensated for workload increases, has allowed the introduction of new tests, and has encouraged clinical users to include pathology costs in their bids for funding for clinical developments. The system works according to rules agreed between pathology and its users at the outset, but once set up takes a minimal amount of work to operate and maintain.