The government has announced action to prevent medicines being prescribed unnecessarily, following a new review led by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England.
A review into overprescribing has found that 10 per cent of the volume of prescription items dispensed through primary care in England are either inappropriate for that patients’ circumstances and wishes, or could be better served with alternative treatments.
It is believed that around one in five hospital admissions in over-65s and around 6.5 per cent of total hospital admissions are caused by the adverse effects of medicines. The more medicines a person takes, the higher chance there is that one or more of these medicines will have an unwanted or harmful effect. Some medicines, such as those to reduce blood pressure, can also increase the risk of falls amongst the frail and elderly.
The review sets out a series of practical and cultural changes to make sure patients get the most appropriate treatment for their needs while also ensuring clinicians’ time is well spent and taxpayer money is used wisely. This includes shared decision making with patients about starting or stopping a medicine, better use of technology, ways to review prescriptions more effectively, and considering alternative medicines which would be more effective.
This is likely to see the introduction of a new National Clinical Director for Prescribing to lead a three-year programme including research and training to help enable effective prescribing; as well as system-wide changes to improve patient records, improve handovers between primary and secondary care, develop a national toolkit and deliver training to help general practices improve the consistency of repeat prescribing processes.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said:This is an incredibly important review which will have a lasting impact on people’s lives and improve the way medicines are prescribed. 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, more needs to be done to listen to patients and help clinical teams tackle overprescribing. I look forward to working with Dr Keith Ridge and our dedicated NHS teams to deliver on these recommendations.”
