Determining local service levels for a service for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults
Benchmarks for a standard population
Available data suggest that the indicative benchmark rate for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults is 0.5%, or 500 per 100,000 population, aged 18 years and older per year.
For the purpose of this commissioning guide the adult population has been defined as people aged 18 years and older. Approximately 80% of the population in England is aged 18 years and older.
For a notional primary care trust population of 250,000 (of whom around 200,000 are aged 18 years and older), the average number of people needing a schizophrenia service would be around 1000 per year (0.5% of the population aged 18 years and older).
For an average practice with a list size of 10,000 (of whom around 8000 are aged 18 years and older), the average number of people needing a schizophrenia service would be around 40 per year (0.5% of the population aged 18 years and older).
These figures vary depending on the local prevalence of schizophrenia, which is known to be affected by several factors including social deprivation and ethnicity[1].
Examine the assumptions used in estimating these figures.
This service is likely to fall under the programme budgeting category 205C (mental health disorders - psychotic disorders).
Use the service for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults commissioning and benchmarking tool to determine the level of service that might be needed locally and to calculate the cost of commissioning the service using the indicative benchmark and/or your own local data.
Further information
Sources of further information to help you in assessing local health needs and reducing health inequalities include:
- Annex A of the Commissioning framework for health and well-being outlines the process and data needed to undertake a joint strategic needs assessment.
- Department of Health Delivering quality and value - focus on benchmarking.
- Communities and neighbourhoods indices of deprivation.
- NICE Health equity audit - learning from practice briefing.
- The Disease management information toolkit (DMIT) is a good-practice tool for decision-makers, commissioners and deliverers of care for people with long-term conditions, which presents data on conditions that contribute to high numbers of emergency bed days. It models the effects of possible interventions that may be commissioned at a local level and helps users to consider the likely impact of commissioning options.
- PARR (Patients at risk of rehospitalisation) is a risk prediction system for use by primary care trusts to identify patients at high risk of hospital re-admission.
- PRIMIS+ provides support to general practices on information management, recording for, and analysis of, data quality, plus a comparative analysis service focused on key clinical topics.
References
1. McCrone P, Dhanasiri S, Patel, A et al. (2008) Paying the price: the cost of mental health care in England to 2026. London: The King's Fund
This page was last updated: 26 March 2010
- Service for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults
- Commissioning a service for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults
- Specifying a schizophrenia service
- Determining local service levels for a service for the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults
- Assumptions used in estimating a population benchmark
- The commissioning and benchmarking tool
- Ensuring corporate and quality assurance
