Allocating resources to health authorities: results and policy implications of small area analysis of use of inpatient services.

A study designed to identify the principal determinants of use of inpatient facilities in NHS hospitals in England used the data and methods outlined in the previous paper. The model for the psychiatric sector contains mortality, self reported morbidity, and social variables indicating deprivation and the level of care at home. The non-acute model contains mortality and several socioeconomic variables. The models lay less weight on age than the current formula, and a national formula based on these models would, in the acute sector, redistribute resources to poorer areas compared with the current formula.