§ Mr. Arnold Shawasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many prescriptions were dispensed for barbiturates in the last year to a convenient date; what is her estimate of the total cost to the NHS; what general advice has been made available through her Department on the prescribing of barbiturates; what plans she has to legislate on the problems that have arisen in this connection; and if she will make a statement.
§ Dr. OwenIn the year ended 30th June 1974, 8,348,900 prescriptions for barbiturates were dispensed in England at an estimated cost to the NHS of £3,177,200.
Doctors who have prescribed barbiturates more heavily than their colleagues receive advice from my Department's Regional Medical Service.
When the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs was formed in 1972 the question of advice and action regarding barbiturates was referred to it. Last year, following a report by its Barbiturates Working Group under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mr. Blenkinsop), the council advised that immediate statutory controls were not desirable but that there was a need to persuade doctors and the public that a considerable reduction in barbiturate prescribing was necessary. Subsequently the professions formed an indpendent group of practitioners to mount a campaign, financed by the Government, to help prescribers reduce barbiturate prescribing, and arrangements are proceeding accordingly.