Cash Counts for Nothing in PCT Performance

The amount of money spent in delivering maternity care in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) does not have a significant impact on rates of infant or perinatal mortality, researchers at the University of Birmingham have found. Nick Freemantle, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, found that between 70% and 80% of variations between PCT infant and perinatal mortality can be explained by a combination of social deprivation, ethnicity and maternal age. In work carried out across the 303 PCTs in England, Professor Freemantle looked at potential causes of variability in the rates of infant and perinatal mortality and aimed to identify those with worse than expected outcomes. In particular the team were keen to analyse the impact on variation of patient demographics and health service funding for maternity services. In the first study of its kind, the team obtained data for each PCT on the number of infant and perinatal deaths, ethnicity, deprivation, maternal age, PCT spending on maternity services and Spearhead status. In the UK, the Government has designated PCTs with the worst health and deprivation indicators as Spearhead Trusts. They found that there were considerable differences in infant and perinatal mortality rates across PCTs, but that these did not relate to the levels of financial resource directed at them.