The Joint Formulary Committee has just taken a very positive step
in more prominently signalling in the new edition of the British National Formulary
the drug products it rates "less suitable for prescribing". I know you will be
concerned to see, from the attached tabulation, that GPs in
England write about 30 million prescriptions a year for such products, costing the NHS
over £100m per year.
I am writing to suggest one way in which the Department might consolidate this
initiative. Perhaps you could encourage the Prescription Pricing Authority to modify the
PACT printouts it regularly sends to doctors, to advise about the numbers and cost of the
'less suitable' drugs they are prescribing, with an indication of how their performance
compares with the average. The point about these products is not that they are always
going to be wrong for every patient, but that doctors should be especially ready to
justify such prescribing when there may well be better alternatives - and that the NHS
should positively encourage this.
For your interest, I am enclosing copies of letters I have written to Professor Sir Charles George, and to the Select
Committee on Health.
