§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average amount paid to Her Majesty's Government from the prescription charge was for each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [73714]
§ Mr. LammyData for 2000–01 indicate that on average each person who was liable to pay prescription charges, excluding those who held a pre-payment certificate, paid for around three prescription items.
Prescription charges collected in England for each of the last ten years are shown in the table.
Year Prescription Charge Total Collected (including PPC sales) £m 1991–92 3.40 215.2 1992–93 3.75 242.0 1993–94 4.25 265.3 1994–95 4.75 287.2 1995–96 5.25 298.7 1996–97 5.50 295.7 1997–98 5.65 320.9 1998–99 5.80 341.3 1999–00 5.90 366.7 2000–01 6.00 386.9
§ Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what clinical benefits are expected from the electronic transfer of prescriptions programme: [73326]
(2) what the projected lifetime cost is of implementing the electronic transfer of prescriptions programme. [73323]
801W
§ Mr. LammyThe electronic transmission of prescriptions between general practitioner practices and community pharmacists is just one element of a wider programme to modernise pharmacy services and the issue of prescriptions. The aim is to implement a new national prescriptions service that supports improved information on individuals' past and current medication, the move from paper based prescriptions with handwriting to secure electronic prescriptions with digital or graphical text and better decision support with integrated access to online drug dictionaries. There will be many building blocks that make up the whole national prescriptions service and at an infrastructure level the electronic transfer of prescriptions and prescription messaging together with connections and computers for pharmacists will be essential.
The benefits of a national prescriptions service are then considerable. They will include:
safer prescribing to save lives and reduce harm by automatic checks on drug interactions and dosage, and less errors arising from illegible or incomplete prescriptionsa more convenient service for patients with easier and faster repeat prescriptions and choice over where they would like to collect their prescriptionsbetter medicines management and the dramatic reduction of fraud and loss of money that can be put into patient care.A business case is being prepared for the national prescriptions service and its key components. This will identify, and provide more detail for, the full range of patient, clinical and efficiency benefits to be realised. The outline business case should be completed by January 2003.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to review the prescription charging system. [74198]