Table 1. Breakdown of costs associated with GA examinations and non-GA examinations supplemented by NLP.

General anaesthetic costs per patient
Operating department practitioner	£22
Recovery	£19
Maintenance/preparation etc.	£10
Anaesthetist	£95
Anaesthesia and drugs	£40
MRI scana	£302
Total cost per patient of an MR under GA	£488
Costs of non-GA MR examinations supplemented by NLP per patient
Cost of NLP practitioner time (1 h)	£18
Cost of non-GA MRI scana	£151
Total cost for non-GA scan	£169

^aThe Government 2007–08 Indicative Tariff to support Unbundling of Diagnostics puts the cost of a single MRI examination without contrast (RA MR1) at £151. On average, it would normally be possible to carry out two MRI examinations in the scanner time that it takes to carry out one under general anaesthesia (GA). It can therefore be assumed that this doubles the cost of a scan under anaesthetic to £302.

The GA-related costs are made on the assumption of four patients being scanned in a 4 h session. The overall difference in the unit cost of a GA and non-GA examination supplemented with neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is £319.