Costs
The costs to the state of acquired brain injury are difficult to estimate due to the problems with the accuracy of the figures. In addition to the costs of treatment and care, the loss of earnings of patients and carers has to be taken into account. An approximation of figures is given below:
Bed rates per day:
high dependency – about £2000/day
rehabilitation – about £400/day
If we, very conservatively, assume admission for 2 days on average to an ordinary ward (at £300/day) then the cost of 130000 people (see above) admitted each year amounts to £78 million/year. Then, some will be admitted to HDU at £2000/day and some to a rehabilitation ward at £400/day and many of those for many months. As noted above about 1 million attend hospital casualty each year at further cost. These costs exclude the costs of lost employment and social security to the State. As an example, an average legal settlement for a young man with a severe head injury to provide care for life and compensate for lost earnings amounts to about £5 million. We can estimate that the total cost of brain injury in the UK is at least £1billion per annum.
This information was collated with the assistance of Headway - the brain injury asociation.
