§ Mrs. Millie Millerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will instruct general practitioners prescribing medicines to National Health Service patients to use products in the British Pharmacopecia list in case of simple drugs and medicines and to be prepared, when prescribing complex products, to justify their choice of a particular item rather than its less expensive competitor.
§ Mr. MoylePrescribing is a matter of clinical judgment, which may be assisted by the British National Formulary or other guidance. The information available to doctors includes drug cost comparison circulars supplied by my Department. There are already arrangements under which action may be taken 711W where a doctor's prescribing appears to be unduly expensive.