Average Number Of Prescription Items Dispensed To Older People Nearly Doubles In A Decade, UK

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Pharmacy / Pharmacist;  Public Health
Article Date: 01 Aug 2008 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

The average number of prescription items dispensed to older people in 2007 was nearly double the number dispensed in 1997, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.

On average, people aged 60 and over received 42.4 items per head in 2007, compared to 22.3 items in 1997.

The report, Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community, Statistics for 1997 - 2007; England, also shows nearly 60 per cent more prescription items were dispensed to the population in total in 2007 compared to 1997.

The report covers all prescriptions dispensed by the NHS in England by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors.

Other key findings were:

- On average, 15.6 prescription items were dispensed per head of population in 2007, compared to 10.3 items in 1997.

- A total of 796 million prescription items were dispensed in 2007 - 59.2 per cent more than in 1997.

- The therapeutic area with the largest number of items dispensed, which also had the greatest cost, is the cardiovascular system, which covers the treatment of conditions related to the heart and circulatory system.

Tim Straughan, NHS Information Centre Chief Executive, said: "Over the last ten years, there has been a large increase in the number of prescription items supplied to patients by the NHS. This is particularly the case for prescriptions supplied to elderly patients where the average number of items per person has almost doubled"

Notes

The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work.

The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

This bulletin covers all prescriptions that were dispensed in England by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors. The majority of prescriptions dispensed are written by GPs but prescriptions written by dentists and prescriptions written in hospital or a Community Health Trust are also included, provided they were dispensed by a community pharmacist.

The bulletin shows the headline cost (net ingredient cost) of medicines before the deduction of discount or charges paid and therefore does not represent the actual cost to the NHS, however many overall messages are very similar. Details of all items dispensed, including costs were published in The NHS Information Centre's Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) publication on 29 April 2008.

Definitions

Prescription Item
Prescribers write prescriptions on a prescription form. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item.

Items per head of population
This bulletin uses mid-year resident population estimates and projections based on the 2001 Census.

NHS Information Centre