§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has received the results of the inquiry into the prescribing of withdrawn drugs.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe have collected from the Prescription Pricing Authority all the NHS prescriptions dispensed in England in the period January to March 1984 for the drugs Zomax, Zelmid, Flosint and Osmosin.
These inquiries have revealed that the numbers of prescriptions dispensed for each drug in this period were as follows:
Numbers Zomax 30 Zelmid 7 Flosint 10 Osmosin 53 TOTAL 100 The prescriptions were written by 77 general practitioner in 45 different family practitioner areas. From interviews with over half of these doctors it is clear that the majority of prescriptions were written as a result of an informed clinical judgment and that there is no evidence of a failure of distribution of the warnings on the drugs concerned.
It is important, too, to set these figures against the total 80 million prescriptions for all drugs dispensed in this period by 22,000 general practitioners.
In the light of these facts the Medicines Commission has considered the present legal position relating to the prescribing of withdrawn drugs and has advised that no change in the law is required. It has however underlined the importance of good professional practice in this matter. This would require a doctor to endorse a prescription for a withdrawn drug to indicate that he had prescribed it in full knowledge of its status. If any prescription was not so endorsed the pharmacist should confirm the doctor's intentions before dispensing the prescription.
We will be discussing with the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and other bodies concerned how this advice can best be implemented.