UK Hospital and Community Service Reference Costs for 2017-18

Reference Costs provide indicators of the unit costs of providing a range of hospital and community services at trust and hospital level. The data is derived from electronic hospital activity systems and Health and Social Care trust financial and information returns for the 2017-18 period. It was published by the Government Digital Service.

Use Cases

• Benchmark hospital service unit costs based on trust-level financial returns.
• Analyze cost variations for community services based on activity system data.
• Model healthcare expenditure and resource allocation for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Strengths

• Data is derived from official financial and activity returns, suggesting an authoritative source.
• Covers a range of hospital and community services at both trust and hospital levels.
• Provides unit cost indicators for a specific fiscal year (2017-18).

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Derived from electronic hospital activity systems and HSC trust financial and information returns.

Time Range

2017-18

Freshness

Data is for the 2017-18 period; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Likely United Kingdom, given the mention of HSC trusts and Government Digital Service.