Pills for NHS financial ills

I DON’T pretend to understand the complexities of NHS funding, but surely it is ridiculous to have GPs writing expensive prescriptions for items that cost far less to buy over the counter.

Not just the examples highlighted in a report published by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which found that things like shampoo, pasta, sun cream, gluten-free digestive biscuits, Yakult yoghurt drinks and even toothpaste were being prescribed; but out-of-licence medicines such as HRT and thyroid tablets.

Why doesn’t the NHS invest in its own labs — preferably in areas of high unemployment — where it can make in-house medicines, cutting out the middle man and saving millions of pounds worth of taxpayers’ money in the process?