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Written question asked by Oliver Colvile (Conservative) on Tuesday, 18 October 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 20 October 2016. It was answered by David Mowat (Conservative) on Monday, 24 October 2016 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Prescription Drugs: Waste Management

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce medicine waste.

Answer

Information is not held centrally on the annual cost or amount of dispensed but unused prescription drugs in the National Health Service.

The Department commissioned the York Health Economics Consortium and the School of Pharmacy at the University of London to carry out research to determine the scale, causes and costs of waste medicines in England. The report, Evaluation of the Scale, Causes and Costs of Waste Medicines, was published on 23 November 2010. This found that the gross cost of unused prescription medicines in primary and community care in the NHS in England in 2009 was £300 million a year and that up to £150 million of this was avoidable. The report is available at:

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/111804.pdf?repositoryId=90

NHS England is working with the Department and the NHS Business Services Authority to consider how value can best be obtained from the use of medicines, both in terms of patient outcomes and financial implications. This work, along with the medicines optimisation programme, will help ensure best value for both taxpayers and patients.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
49077
Session
2016-17
Subjects
Prescription drugs Waste management
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk