§ Mr. Michael MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much public money has been spent in each of the last five years on distributing(a) the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, (b) the Prescribers Journal, (c) Health Trends, (d) the British National Formulary, (e) the Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin and (f) prescribing analyses and costs data, to doctors in the NHS.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 26 June 1990]: The cost of printing and distributing the publications to professionals and other bodies throughout the National Health Service (in England) in each of the years requested was:
1990–91 £ (f) Health Trends 115,000 (g) British National Formulary 1,194,000 (h) The Analysis of Prescribing in General Practice A Guide to Audit and Research (abridged and unabridged)3 42,000 1 The figure given for the cost of PACT Data is for the full cost of production and distribution including staff costs and systems support, maintenance and operation. 2 The Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin and Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin are invoiced jointly—it is not possible to disaggregate the costs. Funding of the Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin ceases after the June 1990 issue. 3 The cost of the Analysis of Prescribing in General Practice was incurred over two financial years. This was a one-off exercise to issue the guide to all practices in England. We do not anticipate there being any additional costs after 1990–91.