HC Deb 17 February 1988 vol 127 cc622-3W
Mr. Wheeler

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current annual cost of providing drugs in the National Health Service as a whole and to family practitioners; if he is satisfied with the control and accountability of these costs; and what measures he proposes to prevent fraud by the sale of drugs overseas by those who have received them at public expense.

Mr. Newton

The net cost of providing drugs in the National Health Service in England in 1986–87, including fees, remuneration and payments to hospital pharmacists1 was £2,016 million. Of this £1,639 million was paid in the family practitioner services, including £120 million to dispensing doctors.

For proprietary medicines, pharmaceutical companies with sales to the NHS of £4 million or more provide audited financial returns each year covering their costs and capital. These returns are scrutinised under the terms of the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme. Companies with sales of between £0.5 million and £4 million also provide information annually, but of a more limited nature. For generic medicines, the prices reimbursed to chemists are shown in the drug tariff. In the main, the drug tariff reflects the competing prices in this market.

A patient may receive drugs at public expense only in exchange for a prescription form signed by a doctor. It is the doctor's responsibility to ensure that any drugs he prescribes are, in his judgment, needed by that patient. Once dispensed, the drugs become the patient's property. The clinical control expected of doctors militates against patients receiving drugs in large quantities, and there are special arrangements for drugs controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act and its regulations. Any cases of suspected fraud are investigated by family practitioner committees or health authorities in the first instance.

1This information has recently become available.

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