Prescription Waste

An FOI request has shown that the majority of NHS boards in Scotland do not hold any information regarding how much prescription medicine wastage costs them each year.

A Freedom of Information request lodged by Margaret Mitchell MSP , Conservative & Unionist MSP for Central Scotland, asked NHS boards how much prescription medicine wastage has cost each of them over the last five years. Only NHS Western Isles were able to provide figures using Ascribe, which is a Pharmacy Computer System.

Last year a study commissioned by the Department of Health reported that the gross annual cost of prescription medicines wastage in England was £300 million a year (this represents £1 in every £25 spent on primary care and community pharmaceutical and allied products use.)

Commenting on the FOI results, Margaret said:

'As the report from the Department of Health detailed prescription medicine waste can cost the NHS vast sums of money which could instead be used to deliver frontline services.

'In spite of this, the response to the FOI varied dramatically. Four NHS boards (Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian and Tayside) merely stated that they did not hold this information. Others at the very least indicated an awareness of the issue and confirmed that they were participating in initiatives to tackle the problem, for example, NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Orkney recently participated in TV campaign.

'In my own Central Scotland region, NHS Lanarkshire, recently estimated that prescription medicine wastage costs the board £2 million a year (the equivalent of 180 coronary bypass operations). There, the issue is being tackled the issue by asking patients to consider carefully their use of repeat prescriptions as a large proportion of waste comes from medicines that people now no longer need or use.

'Meanwhile some NHS boards such as NHS Borders have carried out 'DUMP' campaigns which assess the value of unwanted medicine by monitoring drug returns collected over a period of time. The 2006 'DUMP' campaign by NHS Borders led them to extrapolate an annual figure of £250,000 a year.

'Furthermore, the FOI showed that some boards collect data on the volume of prescription medicine waste collected from community pharmacies, for example, Greater Glasgow & Clyde record this information. However, this is not costed and in the case of Greater Glasgow & Clyde the figures showed that the volume of waste collected has declined in the past three years.

'In the case of NHS Highland it was able to provide figures regarding the costs of disposing of medicines returned to community pharmacies. This has been increasing over the last few years.

'Clearly is it difficult to pin down the full extent of the cost of prescription medicine wastage as people do not always return medicines to pharmacies for disposal.

'However, as the number of prescriptions dispensed increases, especially with the advent of universal free prescriptions in Scotland, it is essential that NHS boards are proactive in both trying to monitor the cost of prescription medicine waste and in encouraging both GPs and patients to assess carefully their use. For example, there should be a regular assessment of whether a repeat prescription medicine is necessary. In addition to this, more could be done to monitor usage and the cost of disposal. Basically this is an issue which is in need of some innovative thought to try and minimise the wastage and to see if medicines which have been issued recently, and where the seal has not been broken, could be reused.'

Margaret's question: How much prescription medicine wastage has cost NHS _______ for each of the last five years from 2006 to the present? NHS Western Isles figures extracted from Ascribe:

2006/07 = £14.5k

2007/08 = £24k

2008/09 = £19.5k

2009/10 = £22.3k

2010/11 = £23.7k

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