A methodological framework to derive the cost of the GP consultation

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Primary Care Management
• National Health Service (NHS) Research

Background:

• Accurate economic analysis within a primary care-led National Health Service (NHS) requires precise costing of general practitioner (GP) consultations.
• Current methods for deriving GP consultation costs lack standardization, leading to a wide range of incompatible estimates.
• Local unit costs are preferable but require consistent methodology for comparability across studies and settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a standardized framework for calculating the unit cost of GP consultations.
• To enable individual GP practices to determine their own consultation costs.
• To provide usable data for economic analyses when local information is unavailable.

Main Methods:

• Development of a framework for unit cost derivation.
• Inclusion of guidance for using local practice information.
• Provision of supplementary data for situations lacking local details.

Main Results:

• A proposed framework enabling consistent calculation of GP consultation unit costs.
• Methodology allows for adaptation to local practice circumstances.
• Offers a solution for cost estimation where local data is absent.

Conclusions:

• A standardized methodology is essential for compatible economic evaluations of primary care.
• The proposed framework facilitates consistent and reliable determination of GP consultation costs.
• This approach supports robust health economic research within the NHS.