§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much money is spent annually in the United Kingdom on prescriptions; whether dispensing has tended to increase substantially over the past decade; and what steps are being taken to ensure that lesser quantities are prescribed the more effectively to match actual requirements.
§ Dr. VaughanIn 1979, the total cost of prescriptions dispensed by chemists and appliance contractors in the United Kingdom was £918.85 million. This figure includes the cost of the drugs and the costs associated with dispensing them. The following table shows the total numbers of prescriptions dispensed by chemists and appliance contractors in the United Kingdom in each year since 1970.
Number of Prescriptions Dispensed in the United Kingdom (Thousands) 1970 305,995 1971 304,537 1972 315,448 1973 324,557 1974 337, 226 1975 346,077 1976 360,476 1977 363,493 1978 378,088 1979 375,072 A doctor's terms of service require him to prescribe whatever he considers is appropriate for the proper treatment of his patient, and it would be wrong to seek to impose formal restrictions on the quantity of drugs a doctor may prescribe. However, to promote the interests of both economy and safety in the prescribing of drugs, the Department does, with the support of the British Medical Association, encourage doctors to restrict the amount they prescribe on any one occasion to no more than is considered reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances of the patient concerned.