Hospital drug costs rise
Estimated costs of drugs used in NHS hospitals in England rose by 7.7 per cent last year, compared with a 3.2 per cent increase in the cost of prescribing in primary care, new
statistics published in a bulletin from The Information Centre show. Medicines issued in NHS hospitals in 2006 represented nearly 24 per cent of the total cost of medicines, which was £10.3bn.
The strategic health authority with the greatest proportion of drugs
supplied by hospitals (excluding items prescribed on FP10HPs) was London
SHA, at 38.2 per cent. Reasons for this include the presence of tertiary
hospitals in the SHA (which tend to provide more expensive medicines)
and local arrangements in which drugs are provided through hospitals
rather than through primary care. The lowest proportion of drugs supplied
by hospitals was found in the South East Coast SHA.
Other findings include that the proportion of low-cost statins and low-cost
proton pump inhibitors used in hospitals was higher than in primary care.
The bulletin says that this may be because more new patients are initiated
on these drugs in hospital, whereas patients in primary care may have
been started on these drugs when prices were different.
Interferon beta had the highest level of prescribing, by cost, for drugs
supplied on FP10HP prescriptions and dispensed in the community.
The bulletin can be accessed online
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Hospital
Pharmacist