The NHS has asked doctors to stop or greatly reduce the prescribing of certain medicines or treatments because they are:
- Not as safe as other medicines OR
- Not as good (effective) as other medicines OR
- More expensive than other medicines that do the same thing OR
- Shouldn’t be available on the NHS in some circumstances
As such, your GP, nurse or pharmacist will not generally give you a prescription for the following medicines or treatments (known as low clinical value medicines):
- Co-proxamol
- Dosulepin
- Doxazosin modified-release (MR)
- Fentanyl immediate-release (IR)
- Glucosamine and chondroitin
- Herbal treatments
- Homeopathy
- Lidocaine plasters
- Liothyronine
- Lutein and antioxidants
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Oxycodone and naloxone combination
- Paracetamol and tramadol combination
- Perindopril arginine
- Rubefacients
- Tadalafil once-daily
- Trimipramine
Why does the NHS want to reduce prescribing of these medicines?
The NHS has to make difficult choices about what it spends money on and how much value it is getting for that money.
There are big differences in prescribing of some medicines across the country. Some areas of the country prescribe medicines that the evidence shows do not work as well as other medicines or are less safe than other medicines. Some areas are prescribing more expensive versions of the same drug.
These changes aim to improve prescribing for patients across Mid and South Essex and save the local NHS valuable resources that can be spent on other areas of patient care.
The Mid and South Essex Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Team develop resources to help reduce the prescribing of low clinical value medicines. If you would like more information on the resources that the Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Team produce, please contact mseicb.enquiries@nhs.net
Note: the information above is taken from the following website: https://www.prescqipp.info/umbraco/surface/authorisedmediasurface/index?url=%2fmedia%2f1390%2fpatient-information-prescribing-changes-from-december-2017.pdf.