Curbing prescriptions can free up £100 million for frontline care

New NHS England guidance has revealed how curbing prescriptions for ‘over the counter’ medicines can free up to almost £100 million for frontline care each year.

Limiting routine prescribing for short-term conditions, many of which will cure themselves or cause no long term effect on health, could help cut some of the spending habits of the NHS. For example according to the health body, £22.8 million is spent each year by the health service on constipation, with conditions such as athletes foot and Diarrhoea also costing up to £3 million each year.

Furthermore, other over-the-counter products currently prescribed include remedies for dandruff (£4.5 million), indigestion (£7.5 million), mouth ulcers (£5.5 million) and travel sickness.

Once CCGs have adopted the new guidance locally, it will apply to everyone who is not covered by the general or condition-specific exceptions listed in the guidance document.

Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “Across the NHS our aim is to: ‘Think like a patient, act like a taxpayer’. The NHS is probably the most efficient health service in the world, but we’re determined to keep pushing further. Every pound we save from cutting waste is another pound we can then invest in better A&E care, new cancer treatments and much better mental health services.”