§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on progress in encouraging doctors to prescribe generic antibiotics; and what guidance and training are available to doctors in this respect.
§ Mrs. CurrieWe encourage doctors to prescribe all drugs generically. All doctors are taught to use generic names during their undergraduate training and professional and other independent publications normally refer to drugs by their generic title.
Particular therapeutic categories are not singled out for special attention. Statistics derived from prescriptions of drugs dispensed by community pharmacists show that the percentage of all prescriptions written generically in England has risen from 20 per cent, in 1977 to 39 per cent, in 1987. Figures for antibiotics only are not readily available.