Bromley proposes to save the NHS up to £1 million a year on medicines

NHS Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is asking the public about their views on self-care, saying cutting self-care medication can save the NHS up to £1 million a year.

At the moment, NHS Bromley CCG spends around £46 million on prescribing medicines, and £2.1 million is spent on self-care medicines alone.

Nationally, the NHS spends £67.5 million a year on prescribing paracetamol, which can be bought for around 40p from any supermarket or pharmacy.

NHS Bromley CCG is proposing to no longer support the routine prescribing of health supplements and self-care medicines for short lived minor illnesses that will get better over time.

It believes it would be a better use of NHS money for patients to buy these products themselves rather than being prescribed by the NHS.

The changes are being made by Bromley NHS CCG to promote self-care of minor conditions, free up doctor and nurses’ time for those most in need, and to get the best value from the funding it has available.

Views are being sought until 8 October and a decision will be made at the NHS Bromley CCG Governing Body meeting on 16 November 2017.

Dr Andrew Parson, clinical chair of the CCG, said: “We want to support people to lead longer, healthier lives in Bromley. We want them to take care of their minor ailments and injuries at home and seek help when it is needed.

“After careful consideration and discussions with local health professionals and our GP members, we are proposing to no longer support the routine prescribing of healthcare supplements and self-care medication for acute illnesses that will get better.

“The Bromley population is growing and we have to carefully consider how we use our finite resources to get the best health and wellbeing outcomes for out residents.

“By asking people to purchase their own self-care medicines such as paracetamol, antihistamines, cough medicines etc, we could potentially save up to £1 million which can be better spent on other health treatments.

“This proposal could also help to ease the pressure on GPs by reducing the amount of time spent seeing patients with minor ailments that could be treated at home and have more time to support those with complex health conditions.”