98/367 Tuesday 8th September 1998
PRESCRIBING SUPPORT FOR GPs
General Practitioners can now seek advice from a resource
document, designed to engage other health professionals in assisting them
with managing quality and cost effectiveness of drug prescribing.
The document called "GP Prescribing Support: A Resource
Document and Guide" is aimed at helping GPs, Health Authorities and
emerging Primary Care Groups (PCGs) to commission the support they need
to draw up clinical guidelines or resolve problems with
individual patients' medication.
The report could also help the newly configured PCGs to draw up a
practice wide prescribing policies across their areas. Drug expenditure by
GPs in England accounts for approximately #4.5 billion annually, and the
new PCG arrangements will give GPs much greater flexibility to decide how
best to spend their local healthcare budgets.
Launching the document today Health Minister Baroness Hayman
said:
"The cost and complexity of prescribing drugs means that busy GPs
will benefit from prescribing support to help ensure that their
prescribing policies are the most effective for their patients, and
the most cost-effective for their PCG.
"More and more GPs are now working with pharmacists and other
health professionals to find the best methods of managing the prescribing
of drugs. I am sure that potential providers of prescribing support such
as pharmacists will rise to the challenge."
The document brings together a range of models and experiences
which have been tried out in different parts of the country, and
GP practices can also draw on the experience and expertise of Health
Authorities when they consider their own prescribing support needs.
A GP will prescribe, on average, between 250 and 350 different
drugs every week. A strategy which helps a doctor for example make the
right decisions in selecting drugs from a vast range of medicines
which will help to maximise the health benefits for their patients
and insure cost effectiveness, bringing additional benefits to
patients, GPs and the NHS.
Notes for Editors
1 "GP Prescribing Support: A Resource Document and Guide" has
been compiled jointly by the National Prescribing Centre and the NHS
Executive.
2. The National Prescribing Centre is funded by the NHS Executive
to provide advice to the NHS on prescribing issues and is based
in Liverpool.
3. The many prescribing support initiatives within the guide
include 17 pilot projects funded by the Department to evaluate
provision of prescribing advice by community pharmacists, and
others resulting from a nationwide trawl.
http://www.coi.gov.uk/coi/depts/GDH/coi5492e.ok
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Regards
Jeff Green
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