Q.01

What are PSSRU unit costs?

PSSRU unit costs are the figures in the Unit Costs of Health and Social Care, an annual compendium of standard costs for health and social care services. The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) started it. It is used to put a price on resource use (staff time, contacts, care services) in economic evaluations, including the evidence submitted to NICE technology appraisals.

Who produces it now. The name has outlived the original publisher. The old PSSRU page now redirects to the Care and Outcomes Research Centre (COReC) at the University of Kent. Since 2022, COReC has produced the series with the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, building on "PSSRU's successful approach and long experience". The work is a five-year programme funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme. It publishes a manual every year: the 2025 edition is the latest, earlier manuals cover 2022–2024, and archived costs go back to 2003–2021 (University of Kent, Unit Costs 2022–2027).

How it shows up in NICE appraisals. Company and review-group models usually use it next to the BNF (drug prices) and NHS Reference Costs (hospital activity):

  • Rituximab maintenance, follicular lymphoma (TA226): costs for administration, supportive care, managing adverse events and monitoring came from the BNF, NHS Reference Costs 2008–09 and the PSSRU 2009 unit costs [1].
  • Bevacizumab, ovarian cancer (TA285): drug administration costs were taken from the Unit Costs of Health and Social Care and NHS reference costs [2].
  • Edoxaban, atrial fibrillation (TA355): the compendium was also used for inflation. Warfarin monitoring costs were brought up to 2013 prices with the PSSRU Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) index [3].

The compendium has two uses in a model. It gives unit costs for resources (for example, the cost of an hour of a given professional's time), and it gives the HCHS index to bring older costs up to the price year of the analysis.

Approach: I searched NICE technology appraisal guidance and opened the University of Kent programme page. I couldn't open NICE's methods manual (PMG36) this time, so I haven't quoted what it says about cost sources.

Q.02