FP6.2 - A survey of the estimated cost of consumables amongst UK medical students

Abstract Aims With increasing financial difficulties for the NHS, clinician’s awareness of the cost of consumable items utilised is vital. Despite this, clinician’s cost-awareness and exposure to health economics amongst students is limited. We hence undertook this survey to assess cost-awareness amongst medical students. Methods An online questionnaire was distributed to London medical students. Participants were asked their demographic data and to estimate the cost of 10 consumable items. Each item’s actual cost was compared with the average, median and interquartile range of the estimated price. An estimate was deemed ‘correct’ if it was within 20% of the actual price. Results Across all items 9.63% of estimates were ‘correct’. There was no correlation between medical school or academic year and accuracy of cost-estimation. The most accurately estimated item cost was the ‘10ml syringe’ (19.55%), the least was the ‘1 litre bag of intravenous normal saline’ (0.50%). The most overestimated item cost was the ‘vial of 1.2g intravenous co-amoxiclav’ (median estimate/actual cost = 9.43), the ‘pair of standard sterile surgical gloves’ was the only underestimated item cost (median estimate/actual cost = 0.97). Conclusions We found a poor understanding of the cost of consumables amongst medical students. Whilst a lack of year 6 students and the London geographic limited this study, we believe this is the first large-scale survey assessing the cost of consumables amongst UK students. By providing a benchmark of current knowledge, this survey could serve as a catalyst for the inclusion of health economics in medical school curricula, improving cost-awareness amongst students and doctors.