§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will authorise the production of a list of essential drugs which are safest, cheapest, and most effective, and that this list be circulated 545W for the information of general practitioners, and updated at suitable intervals.
§ Mr. MoyleMy Department currently provides to doctors independently produced information about drugs and therapeutics and about comparative costs of medicines. One of the publications so provided is the British National Formulary (BNF) which offers the doctor a selection of drugs designed to cope with practically every illness he is likely to meet that can be dealt with by drugs. I and my professional advisers are taking a close supportive interest in the professions' present revision of the BNF aimed at improving still further the nature and quality of the information it contains.
I also refer my hon. Friend to the reply my right hon. Friend gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Eccles (Mr. Carter-Jones) on 20th April—[Vol. 948, c. 334–5]—concerning these and other measures to secure economies and obtain value for the money spent on prescribing.
Mr. Tom Ellisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what instructions he has given to pharmacists prescribing drugs within the National Health Service to remove labelling attached to drugs imported from overseas in order to protect the prescribing doctor's right to be the sole provider of information about the drugs to the patient.
§ Mr. MoylePharmacists do not prescribe drugs under the National Health Service Acts, and normally dispense them only in accordance with specific instructions given them in writing by the prescribing doctor. My right hon. Friend has issued no instructions to pharmacists concerning the labelling of drugs other than those set out in the Medicines (Labelling) Regulations 1976 (S.I. 1976 No. 1726) and subsequent amendment regulations.