Buy your own paracetamol so the NHS can fund eye ops

We cAn’T go on like this. On the one hand, the nHS is so strapped for cash that we have to ration things that would dramatically improve people’s lives, such as cataract surgery.

On the other, as was reported earlier this week, the nHS is spending vast sums of cash on simple painkillers such as paracetamol that patients could buy far cheaper on the High Street. It’s madness.

Such drugs are hugely more expensive when issued on prescription because they have to be dispensed by a pharmacist.

Last year in england alone, the nHS spent more than £70 million on paracetamol, with GPs issuing more than 21,740,000 prescriptions at £3.23 per packet, even though they are sold for as little as 19p at supermarkets.

These figures emerged in response to a parliamentary question by Grahame Morris, a Labour MP.

But those in the Health Service have known about this scandal for a long time, and last year the chief executive of the nHS, Simon Stevens, suggested that basic medications that can be bought over-thecounter should be removed from the list of things doctors can prescribe.

As well as simple painkillers, this includes gluten-free foods, basic antacids such as Gaviscon or ranitidine (Zantac), ointment for eye infections, laxatives such as senna and hayfever medicines.

Some have criticised this plan as evidence of a creeping retreat by the nHS, so it provides less and less to patients. The idea is ‘out to consultation’ — which, given these objections, means it may never happen.

But to me, it just makes economic sense. Why should taxpayers subsidise medicines at vastly inflated cost, when a quick trip to the local chemist or supermarket means patients could pick them up 17 times cheaper?

Yet colleagues tell me that when they try to persuade people to buy their own painkillers, many flatly refuse, arguing they should never have to pay for their pills. Even

more infuriating is that several patients have told me that because they get their painkillers on repeat prescription and don’t always take them, they build up a stock which they then hand out to friends and family.

This is an utter disgrace, and demonstrates everything that’s wrong with the way people view the nHS — namely that it’s free, so can be abused.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a passionate advocate for the nHS. All the evidence shows it’s one of the cheapest and most efficient ways in the world for delivering healthcare. But it simply cannot provide everything for everyone, and the medicines we’re talking about here are, by definition, basic ones — including cough and cold remedies, travel sickness pills and sun protection cream — all highly affordable on the High Street.

If the nHS had unlimited resources, of course people should get over-the- counter drugs free. But when we can’t afford to fund cataract operations so that blind people can see, I’m afraid we have to make some tough decisions.

That means the nHS stopping prescriptions for gluten-free foods, for example, which cost the Health Service an estimated £22 million last year. This is not condemning those with coeliac disease to starvation: there are thousands of foods that are naturally glutenfree, it’s just prioritising resources. Besides, it’s food, not medicine. You don’t get diabetic chocolate on the nHS, so why should you get gluten-free bread?

nHS england estimates that £400 million a year could be saved by instructing GPs not to hand out these kinds of ‘low priority’ items on prescription.

That money could make a real difference. There are now 385,000 people waiting for a cataract operation. In some areas, individuals who are effectively blind have to wait well over a year for the operation, which costs about £900. SAvInGS

of £400 million would mean that, in one fell swoop, we could pay for every single one on the waiting list to be operated on and still have £80 million change.

What also worries me is that if the nHS is seen to waste money like this, then taxpayers will start to resent paying for it. That would be a tragedy for the poorest and most vulnerable, who would suffer disproportionately if the nHS were to collapse.

The truth is, I’d far rather an elderly woman who lives on her own has her cataracts operated on, allowing her to live an independent life safely, than someone had paracetamol or medicine for an upset stomach on the nHS, just to save them a little money.

The vast majority can afford a few pence for a painkiller or other medicine. It’s scandalous that the nHS is beggaring itself in order to ensure they still get them for free.

MEDICINE is more elitist than ever. A study has found that in 2016, 60 per cent of senior doctors were from public school, compared with 51 per cent in 1987. This is a tragedy not only for young people who might make brilliant doctors but are from less privileged families, but also for society. There is a sociological principle known as the Inverse Care Law — a concept which states that the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need of the population served. In short, wealthy areas tend to have more doctors than needed, while deprived areas have too few. This is because students tend to end up in areas similar to where they were raised. A mix of doctors from different backgrounds promotes health care across the board. But no one seems to be listening.