Programme budgeting and marginal analysis: bridging the divide between doctors and managers

Tensions between doctors and managers and the differences between medical and managerial cultures have existed since the earliest provision of organised health care. In a resource allocation context, doctors are caricatured as taking the role of patient advocate while managers take the corporate, strategic view. Delivery of efficient (and in the case of the NHS, equitable) health care requires doctors to take responsibility for resources and to consider the needs of populations while managers need to become more outcome and patient centred. One economic approach, called programme budgeting and marginal analysis, has the potential to align the goals of doctors and managers and create common ground between them. We describe how the approach works and why it should be more widely used.