A quantitative analysis of the health care resource allocations: the private versus the public route in the United Kingdom

Abstract

With public spending subject to increasing security, the private sector has grown in influence in providing welfare. The public and private mix of welfare has been theorized in many academic disciplines but has not received full quantitative application. This letter attempts an estimation of the average costs of in-patient stay in each sector and finds that the public sector offers the greater efficiency using this measure. It goes on to calculate the number of treatments that would be possible if all health resources were allocated to the public sphere.