Are short term savings worth long term costs? Funding treatment for personality disorders

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Abstract
The new system of funding introduced by the National Health Service reforms has led to an increased awareness of financial concerns within the NHS. This was indeed one of the main aims of the reforms, with the expectation that a more efficient and better quality service would result. This may be a realistic aim, as long as clinicians' freedom to make appropriate secondary and tertiary referrals do not become totally dependent upon financial considerations. Yet it has become clear from findings within our own unit, Henderson Hospital, that, in at least 42% of cases, requests for ECR funding for treatment were refused on a purely financial basis (Dolan & Norton, 1992).