The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p473
5 October 2002

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UK medicines bill has fallen in relation to total NHS spend, says new report

Although the United Kingdom medicines bill is still rising, it has fallen as a proportion of total National Health Service expenditure, according to the latest figures from the Office of Health Economics.

The OHE 2002 Compendium of Health Statistics, published last week, reveals that prescription medicines dispensed by pharmacists cost the NHS £7.3bn in 2001 (11.6 per cent of total NHS spend), compared with £6.7bn in 2000 (11.8 per cent of total spend). Total NHS spend in 2000 was £57bn, of which general pharmaceutical services made up 12.5 per cent.

The data also show that medicines costs for two disease areas targeted as priorities by the Government — heart disease and mental health — have risen by 29 and 30 per cent, respectively, during the past three years. Over 28 per cent of this increased spend was on statins.

Overall, the number of prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists was 677 million in 2001, compared with 637 million the year before, and over half of all prescriptions dispensed by pharmacists in England in 2001 were for generic drugs.

However, the report highlights regional variations, with Wales having the highest number of prescriptions per capita (14.9) and England the lowest (11.2). In addition, higher levels of prescribing in the north of England are associated with lower drug costs, "which implies that prescriptions dispensed in the north contain cheaper preparations and/or smaller quantities than those in the south", the report says.

OHE Director, Adrian Towse, welcomed the Government's recent increased investment in the NHS, which was 6 per cent of UK GDP in 2000. However, he warned that NHS expenditure, which is projected to be 8.2 per cent of UK GDP by 2007–08, could outstrip capacity because it is planned to grow much faster than staffing and bed capacity.

"The Government has not made it clear where all this extra money is going. It is vital the money is used for better health care, rather than just more expensive health care," he said.