"Patients are routinely being harmed by a “culture” of overprescribing, ... with a fifth of hospital admissions among pensioners caused by adverse effects of medication"
Ministers are announcing action to prevent medicines being prescribed unnecessarily, following a new review led by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England.
"A tenth of prescription medicines doled out by GPs are unnecessary ...
It found that an average of 20 prescriptions are now issued per head of population annually, a doubling in two decades....
With 15 per cent of people taking five or more medicines a day, in some cases to deal with the side effects of another medicine ...
Too often, patients felt they were not listened to, and were prescribed medicines without understanding why, or knowing the risks or side-effects.
In some cases there is still a paternalistic tendency to believe that ‘doctor knows best’ and to treat the illness not the person ...
The review estimated that "at least'' 10 per cent of the 1.1 billion prescription items dispensed by GP practices annually may be overprescribed, meaning a “very significant” share of their £9.2 billion drugs budget is going to waste."
Patients are routinely being harmed by a “culture” of overprescribing, ... with a fifth of hospital admissions among pensioners caused by adverse effects of medication." (Article and PDF)
22SEP21 Report "Good for you, good for us, good for everybody A plan to reduce overprescribing to make patient care better and safer, support the NHS, and reduce carbon emissions" led by Led by Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England Dr Keith Ridge CBE (Govt and Overview)
Government Press Release "Ministers accept all recommendations including introducing a new national clinical director for prescribing, increased use of social prescribing and better handovers between hospitals and the community" including,
- cultural changes to reduce a reliance on medicines and support shared decision-making between clinicians and patients, including increasing the use of social prescribing, which involves helping patients to improve their health and wellbeing by connecting them to community services which might be run by the council or a local charity.
- investigate the reasons why overprescribing is more likely to affect older people, people from ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities.
- the development of interventions to reduce waste and help deliver NHS’s net zero carbon emissions. The review also calls for more research to investigate the reasons why overprescribing is more likely to affect older people, people from ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities.
- Currently, 25% of the NHS carbon footprint is as a result of medicines, some of this is down to the use of anaesthetic gases and inhalers, however it is mostly caused by the manufacturing and freight in the supply chain."Government pledges to reduce overprescribing of medicines" (PDF)
03DEC2018 Matt Hancock orders review into overprescribing in the NHS (PDF)
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See also:
- Nuremberg Code
- MHRA Vaccine Side Effects Weekly Reports
- Class Action Lawsuits
- Medical Professionals and Public Speak Out
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