§ Colonel Stoddart-Scottasked the Minister of Health what immediate steps he proposes to take to encourage doctors to reduce the present high cost of prescribing and so release funds for improvements elsewhere in the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodWithout prejudice to their right to prescribe whatever they think necessary in an individual case, I have recently invited all doctors to reexamine the cost of their prescribing. They have been supplied with lists of proprietary preparations classified by the Joint Committee on Prescribing as consisting of or including drugs of doubtful therapeutic value, which they have been asked to avoid prescribing, and of nonstandard drugs of proved value which the Committee recommended should be freely prescribable. Copies of these lists will be placed in the Library of the House. I have suggested to doctors that they should not prescribe other proprietary preparations without first comparing the cost with that of equivalent or similar standard preparations; and I have reminded them of the need for proper economy when prescribing standard products. I have been assured of the co-operation of the medical profession in our joint efforts to keep the cost of prescribing within proper limits.