Childbirth
(asked on 18th June 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average cost to the NHS was of a (a) multiple birth, and (b) singleton birth in 2017.
Maternity delivery episodes are not costed by multiple or singleton birth. They are costed in three categories: normal delivery, assisted delivery and planned or emergency caesarean.
The most recent statistics available relate to financial year of 2016-17. The following table shows the average cost of each delivery episode and the total cost of each category for 2016-17.
| Total | ||
Activity | Average cost per delivery episode (£) | Total cost (£ million) | |
Normal delivery episodes | 380,010 | 2,288 | 869.34 |
Assisted delivery episodes | 81,597 | 3,367 | 274.70 |
Caesarean episodes | 172,794 | 4,248 | 734.00 |
Total delivery episodes | 634,401 | 2,960 | 1,878.05 |
Source: https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/reference-costs