§ Lord Smith of Leighasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much prescribing budgets are being overspent by region; and to what extent this is affecting health services. [HL308]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe following table sets out the prescribing budgets notified to the Prescript ion Payment Authority by each strategic health authority. The 2002–03 forecast outturns are based on prescribing data from April 2002 to August 2002.
42WA
StHA 2002–03 Budget (Annual amount) 2002–03 Forecast outturn Estimated overspend £ £ % Avon, Gloucestershire & Wiltshire 234,441,846 251,450,133 7.25 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 177,149,196 187,893,473 6.07 Birmingham and the Black Country 279,405,129 298,377,383 6.79 Cheshire & Merseyside 307,186,894 319,310,004 3.95 County Durham & Tees Valley 149,855,777 160,508,569 7.11 Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire 177,075,287 189,340,455 6.93
StHA 2002–03 Budget (Annual amount) 2002–03 Forecast outturn Estimated overspend £ £ % Cumbria & Lancashire 270,446,656 279,555,171 3.37 Essex 182,587,733 196,317,359 7.52 Hampshire and Isle of Wight 217,810,635 228,772,413 5.03 Kent and Medway 193,147,219 206,388,184 6.86 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire & Rutland 169,846,238 176,764,206 4.07 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire 262,657,336 282,252,854 7.46 North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 200,298,268 211,149,642 5.42 North Central London 126,773,861 133,251,898 5.11 North East London 158,170,842 164,369,112 3.92 North West London 199,364,629 207,627,252 4.14 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear 178,606,617 194,494,277 8.90 Shropshire and Staffordshire 181,846,594 190,640,359 4.84 Somerset & Dorset 136,144,579 145,503,409 6.87 South East London 155,495,321 163,982,150 5.46 South West London 124,428,250 131,698,202 5.84 South West Peninsula 195,623,079 212,324,718 8.54 South Yorkshire 168,977,378 178,111,818 5.41 Surrey and Sussex 314,341,183 331,694,340 5.52 Thames Valley 212,439,426 227,361,551 7.02 Trent 315,999,702 332,699,393 5.28 West Yorkshire 265,083,512 279,448,260 5.42 These forecasts are based on practice level prescribing budgets and as such do not necessarily reflect the total resource set aside locally for prescribing, as primary care trusts may hold contingency reserves.
A range of factors such as national service frameworks, newly licensed drugs and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommendations affect the growth in prescribing expenditure.
Primary care trusts manage prescribing resources along with other NHS resources as part of their unified allocations. We do not hold detailed information centrally on the local management of these unified allocations and the effects on health services.