Van Gool & Bridges
Costings
This section will describe the resource use and associated costs for each intervention. It
will also provide a summary of all the assumptions made in the costing exercise, the
most fundamental of which is that costs are based on the intervention running for one
year only. The activities contained in each intervention follow the respective
effectiveness study as outlined in section 3.2.
Given the research question, it is appropriate to only calculate direct costs. That is, the
direct costs of the intervention to the Health Promotion Unit of the SWSAHS, and to
other sectors of the health care system such as the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS)
and NSW Health. For the purposes of this analysis, indirect costs are not included.
Two other general assumptions are worth noting. First, it is assumed that the SWSAHS
has sufficient infrastructure such as office space and equipment to run the interventions
and these resources are not costed. Second, the interventions analysed in this project do
not necessarily need to follow the current work practices of the SWSAHS.
The GP Based Intervention
There are approximately 700 GPs in the SWSAHS (DHFS, 1996). As mentioned
above, this study has assumed that the recruitment success rate is 70%. Hence, 490 GPs
are actively involved in the campaign.
This intervention includes approximately $150 per GP worth of patient education
materials. Materials include posters, pamphlets and booklets, all providing nutritional
education and information on other SWSAHS nutrition services.
A further $50 per GP is estimated for doctor education materials. This includes regular
reminders of the types of nutrition services available to patients. The above figure has
also been allocated to regularly inform GPs about the benefits of nutrition and its
effectiveness on reducing the risk of CHD.
A further $85 per GP is allowed for running education sessions for GPs. This figure
includes administration expenses, venue expenses, follow-up costs and the costs to the
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Chere Project Report 11- November 1999