Prescriptions bill up despite crackdown

THE NHS is spending more on drugs that aren’t meant to be routinely prescribed, despite a supposed crackdown.

Many of the ‘low priority’ medicines – such as painkillers and vitamins – have risen in price, Oxford University researchers found.

One thyroid treatment went up in price from £3.60 to £218.

The research, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, found that while the number of prescriptions went down, the overall bill was up.

The NHS spent £153.5 million on ‘low priority’ treatments in 2016/17, 3 per cent more than in the previous year.