The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7306 p3
3 July 2004

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Prescription costs up 10pc

The total net ingredient cost of prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacies, dispensing doctors and appliance contractors in England in 2003 rose by 9.7 per cent in 2003. This is a real terms increase of 6.5 per cent over 2002.

The number of prescriptions dispensed during 2003 was 649.7 million, up 5.3 per cent on 2002. This gives an average net ingredient cost of £11.56 per prescription item, up 4.2 per cent on the year before and a real terms increase of 1.1 per cent.

The number of prescription items dispensed per person also rose, from 12.4 in 2002 to 13.1 in 2003.

Over three quarters of all prescriptions (77.8 per cent) were written generically (but only 55.4 per cent were dispensed generically), and 86.2 per cent of prescriptions were exempt from the prescription charge.