§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his latest estimate of the annual cost of drugs prescribed (a) by general practitioners and (b) in hospitals; and what is his estimate for the same period of the proportion of prescription items for which a charge is pai dand the revenue from such charges.
§ Mr. Moyle(a) In England the cost was about £512 million, excluding fees and allowances paid to pharmacists. About 36 per cent. of general practitioners prescriptions are chargeable; revenue in 1978–79 is estimated to be about £23 million.
(b) Estimates of expenditure on drugs in hospitals are not centrally available but the accounts of health authorities for 1976–77 record expenditure of nearly £87 million in the hospital and community health services in England. No charge for drugs is made to NHS inpatients. Charges to hospital out-patients in 1976–77 produced revenue of Just over £1 million.