Group hits out at Government's cheaper medicine plan
Mar 15 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal
A PATIENT group in the North East has hit out at Government plans to rely more on cheaper medicines in the hope of saving millions of pounds each year.
Ministers believe GPs should prescribe fewer expensive, branded medications to reduce the NHS drugs’ bill, which topped £10bn in 2007 – 10% of the overall budget.
It is estimated that already up to 83% of drugs prescribed are the so-called “off-patent” drugs and can be manufactured and sold at a cheaper rate.
But Ministers feel this figure could rise to as much as 88% of all medication. The Government wants to automatically substitute prescription drugs with generic versions.
Under proposals being considered certain conditions or drugs could be made exempt from the plans, including anti-epileptic drugs.
However, health experts say the majority of generic drugs are slightly different from their branded counterparts and changes could prove life-threatening to those with chronic conditions such as asthma or people who have had an organ transplant.
John Bedlington, chairman of the patient group LIVErNORTH, said: “There is no doubt this is a concern. Plans to use generic drugs for patients with serious conditions could cause harm to people’s health.
“Often a person will be on a variety of different types of medication and it is a fine balancing act to get drugs which interact OK with one another and don’t cause significant side-effects.
