Date: 20 October 2010

Venue: Clifton House, Belfast

This lecture looked at how effectively funding for health is transformed into improved health outcomes. Dr Peter Brambleby, joint Director of Public Health for NHS Croydon and London Borough of Croydon, first gave an analysis of how traditional health care budgeting works, and its potential problems. The lecture focused on introducing programme budgeting, which involves establishing programmes of care with detailed budgets for each, which incorporate spending across provision. A key advantage of this is that budgeting is easier to monitor and needs of all population groups can be incorporated.

Mr John Compton provided an overview of commissioning in Northern Ireland and future challenges related to the economy and demographics.