Abstract

Ultimately, with a fixed set of resources available there are always opportunity costs of funding particular long-term care activities/projects. Economic evaluation can be used to guide decisions about the LTC options that produce the greatest net benefits.

The challenge lies in: deciding what the benefits or value of LTC that we seek to produce; measuring these benefits; and determining ways to attribute the changes in benefits to the effects of LTC interventions. Given the nature of most LTC services, person-centred, wellbeing improvement is an important goal. The adult social care outcomes tool (ASCOT) provides a preference-weighted utility measure, consistent with this objective, which can be used for economic evaluation.

The presentation outlines these arguments and then provides some evidence using ASCOT around the impact and cost-effectiveness of LTC services in England.

Audio