This one-day training course, organised by the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC), will provide an understanding of the principles of public health economics and economic modelling. It will focus on some of the methods and techniques used to express economic information in ways that are useful to decision makers in the public sector.
As the demand for health and care services grows and finances become more constrained, there is an increasing need for economic evaluation in the public sector. NHS, social care and public health organisations are expected to be able to economically justify any changes in care pathways they propose and there are concerns not only around cost-effectiveness but also the affordability of new initiatives.
Many public sector bodies are under pressure to achieve efficiency and productivity savings in order to balance budgets. They are seeking innovations that will reduce cost pressures and they need to understand the impact of changes in different sectors, including primary, community and social care as well as acute care. There is a focus on primary and secondary prevention approaches in public health to try to reduce demand across the health and social care sector and organisations are keen to understand the initiatives that will provide the greatest value for money.