The NHS has unveiled plans to cut up to £300m worth of medicines waste from its budgets.
Hurrah.
Overprescribing is the problem. Too quick with the pen to write a script, sometimes for the wrong drug or incorrect dose, and then too often the prescription is repeated, over and over.
Each time the NHS gets sight of its drug budget and estimates wastage, every time the adverse effects of prescribed drugs reaches the top of the agenda, every time disposal costs become an issue the realisation dawns. The NHS is prescribing too many and too much drugs.
Almost inevitably, it is described as the patients’ fault, having the temerity to demand a prescription for some minor symptom, or daring to ask for a repeat prescription.
But wait. Who controls the issue of a prescription? Blaming the patient for the consequences of bad prescribing by GPs and hospital doctors is simply absurd, though may be a good headline maker and demonstrate some action toward remedying the problem.
This latest NHS approach can be found here:
Medicines Optimisation Prototype Dashboard
It seeks to do the same as previously, though using more words and a bit of IT support. But it is still patient focussed. The patient is the problem in the eyes of those who have constructed this latest approach, but barely a word about insisting that the prescriber smartens up their act.
As we have noted previously on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum, it seems bound to fail as all previous attempts have failed to make a dent. And at what additional cost?
see also Reducing antibiotic resistance – better prescribing for less waste
see also High cost of island healthcare waste disposal
see also Cutting medicines waste through prescription control
see also NHS Isle of Wight drug waste reduction
and more generally https://www.ianblenkharn.com/?s=prescribing