This page presents experimental UK Health Accounts for the financial year 1999/2000, which were published on 27 February 2003. These accounts have been developed as part of the pilot UK Health Accounts project. Publication on 27 February 2003 marked the end of a first stage of an iterative process, which is planned will lead to publication of data on a National Statistics basis. ONS is keen to involve potential users early in development to maximise quality assurance as well as to familiarise users with the new data. ONS is also keen to ensure that there is a user base with known requirements and uses for this type of data. Therefore, as part of the current stage in developing UK Health Accounts, ONS is gauging user demand for UK Health Accounts.
These experimental estimates were included in OECD Health Data 2003, the source of internationally comparable health statistics for the OECD group of countries. Health Data 2003 was released in June 2003.
Experimental status As the estimates in the UK Health Accounts are published on an experimental basis, ONS advises users to be cautious in drawing conclusions and to examine carefully the methods and sources used in compilation. These sources and methods are new and relatively untested; ONS is very keen to receive comments from users on them as well as suggestions for improving them in the next stage of development.
Time period Whilst experimental total UK health expenditure estimates are published on a calendar year basis, UK Health Accounts have been published on a financial year basis. This is because the main sources of information in compiling the accounts - activity costs produced by health administrations and the NHS - are themselves compiled on a financial year basis. ONS will be investigating how to reconcile the Health Accounts with total UK health expenditure.
NPISH (Non-profit organisation serving households - charities and religious organisations), prisons, armed forces ONS has not yet developed methods for classifying the health expenditure of these types of organisation in terms of function or provider. The Health Accounts tables contain only a total for these types of organisation.
Use of "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches Ideally, Health Accounts should be built up from primary data sources which provide detailed information on the activities of health care providers and financers; these are sometimes referred to as "bottom-up" methods. In this first stage of developing Health Accounts for the UK, it has been necessary to use some "top-down" methods involving non-primary, aggregated sources such as the annual reports by health administrations. Future development of methods for compiling Health Accounts will investigate how the "top-down" methods can be replaced by "bottom-up" ones.
The following tables area available in Excel format. Definitions of the functions can be found on "A System of Health Accounts" page.
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