Introduction: National estimates of hospitalisation costs in medically attended Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infections are necessary to elucidate economic burden and inform immunisation policies. Current published hospitalization costs for medically attended RSV infections among paediatric patients underestimate the true economic burden by omitting costs incurred by critically ill patients and the number of Finished Consultation Episodes (FCE).

Aim: To estimate the 2020/21 mean cost per admission for infants < 12 months hospitalized with RSV, from the perspective of the National Health Service (NHS).

Methods: A retrospective cohort design was employed using RSV-specific and acute bronchiolitis of unspecified origin ICD-10 codes, mapped to Healthcare Resource Group (HRG) code PD15 and the corresponding NHS reference costs for non-elective stays. NHS reference costs are reported per FCE, the cost was multiplied by the average number of FCEs to give the cost per non-critical care admission. Critical care was defined using the HRG codes XB01Z-6Z. Based on published literature, 7.3% of full-term infants and 22.7% preterm infants with RSV were assumed to require critical care, with an average length of stay of 7 days.

Results: The average cost per paediatric RSV hospital admission was estimated at £3,735.50 for full term and £6,618.94 for preterm. 

Conclusion: The proposed cost of hospitalisation in medically attended RSV can be used to inform future pharmacoeconomic evaluation of RSV immunisation programmes to determine cost-effective prices.