The National Audit Office (NAO) study, which included a survey of 1,000 general practitioners and prescribing advisers in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), concluded that generic drugs offer scope for improving the efficiency of prescribing in primary care without affecting clinical outcomes.
The NAO reported that the National Health Service (NHS) spends GBP8 billion a year on prescription drugs in primary care in England and that expenditure on these drugs has increased by 60% in real terms over the last decade.
In September 2006, an NHS institute launched a ‘Better Care, Better Value’ indicator for the prescribing of statins. At the time, it was estimated that GBP85 million could be saved by more systematic prescribing of lower cost, generic forms of these drugs.
The NAO said that building on the statin prescribing indicator to develop further metrics across a larger proportion of the primary care drugs bill would allow PCTs to quantify achievable improvements in areas of high prescribing volume.
When looking at four groups of drugs, which account for 19% of the total primary care drugs bill, including statins, the watchdog concluded that there are large variations between PCTs in the use of generic drugs. The NOA estimated that if all PCTs achieved the standards of the most efficient 25%, the NHS could save more than GBP200 million a year.
The NAO also reported that the NHS’ prescribing efficiency is severely impacted by the high levels of drugs wastage, which it estimates amounts to at least GBP100 million a year. The watchdog said that this issue also needs to be addressed, as under-prescribing and over-prescribing represent poor value for money.