£10M BILL FOR COLD CURES ON THE NHS
Staggering cost of prescriptions for painkillers sold for pennies on High St
SCOTS GPs have run up a bill of nearly £11million by doling out ‘over-the-counter’ painkillers over four years. The huge cost involves common medicines such as paracetamol, which can be bought for a few pence in shops.
The figures cover four flu seasons – considered to be the months of November, December and January – from 2015. GPs prescribed on average £2.72million worth of paracetamol, ibuprofen and Nurofen in each three-month period.
A total of £8.5million was spent on 2.3million ‘items’ of paracetamol in the four years, at an average of £3.62 each, despite packets costing as little as 19p in supermarkets.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs called the situation ‘absurd’. He said:
‘Best value for money’
‘The SNP has underfunded our NHS for years despite an increase in the budget they’ve received from the UK Government.
‘Given that tough financial situation, it seems absurd that health boards are paying over the odds for paracetamol and ibuprofen.
‘The SNP must make sure that at all times our Scottish NHS is getting the best value for money possible.’
Health chiefs have urged Scots to consider ‘self-care’ before making an appointment with their GP.
The figures show GPs handed out 137,000 packets of ibuprofen each year at an average cost of £4.40 per pack, running up a bill of £2.4million.
Doctors prescribed 690 items of Nurofen each year at an average cost of £13.70 each, with the NHS being charged £37,800. Packs of the painkiller typically cost between £2.50 and £5.50 in the shops.
More than 2.8million packets of medicine were issued to patients, containing 443million pills, capsules or liquid sachets. This landed Scotland’s 14 NHS boards with a bill of around £10.9million over the four years. The figures do not include any drug especially designed for children or specialist treatments for conditions such as arthritis.
Despite the huge bill, figures show that the prescriptions of all three drugs have steadily fallen since 2016-17. NHS chiefs revealed that in 2016, 617,000 packs of paracetamol, 164,000 of ibuprofen and 897 of Nurofen were prescribed at a cost of £3.8million. The following year that dropped to £2.7million overall.
Dr Alasdair Forbes, of the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland, said: ‘GPs are acutely aware of how much money prescriptions cost the NHS, and will always encourage patients who can afford to buy over-the-counter medication such as paracetamol and ibuprofen to source it themselves. It is also the case that some patients need to take large amounts of medication, and as such require a prescription for what can appear to be easily obtainable medication.’
He added that before seeing their GP over minor ailments such as colds, patients should consider ‘self-care’, using ‘trusted NHS online services’ such as the online NHS Inform and seek advice from pharmacists.
GPs at Scotland’s largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, issued the highest number of pills, spending £2,628,558 over the four years on the three drugs.
It said the cost of over-thecounter painkillers accounts for around 1 per cent of its primary care medicines budget.
A spokesman for the board added: ‘Some prescriptions in the data will have been issued for long-term conditions where national guidelines recommend regular paracetamol as first-line treatment.
‘Sales of over-the-counter painkillers are commonly limited, meaning a patient is restricted in how much they can purchase. For patients with chronic conditions, it is more appropriate to prescribe a supply which covers a longer time period.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are clear that, at all times, GPs are expected to prescribe responsibly based solely on the health needs of patients. These medicines are prescribed where GPs, using their clinical judgment, consider them to be most effective.’
THE SNP’s free prescriptions policy comes at a huge cost to the NHS.
While patients – many of whom could easily afford to pay for their medicines – may no longer face charges, the health service’s annual drugs budget has been slashed by tens of millions of pounds in order to fund this giveaway.
Today, the Scottish Daily Mail reveals that family doctors across Scotland are handing out millions of doses of common drugs that can be bought for pennies in supermarkets.
New figures show that GPs prescribe, on average, almost £3million worth of paracetamol and ibuprofen each year between November and January.
Each item costs the NHS an average of £3.62 when tablets are available for as little as 19p in supermarkets.
Now health chiefs have asked patients to think twice before asking for everyday drugs to be prescribed.
For some, free prescriptions are a genuine necessity, literally a matter of life and death, but for many of us they are an extra that comes at unacceptable cost to our National Health Service.
Critics of the SNP’s free prescriptions policy were attacked as Scrooges who would deny the poor the help they need.
This was always a straw-man argument. Before the Nationalists made prescription drugs free for all, the worst-off already faced no charges. In fact, the vast majority of prescriptions carried no cost. Our NHS is under huge pressure, especially at this time of year. The prescribing of medicines that cost pennies to buy over the counter is a luxury the service can ill afford.