30.07.18
NHS pays massive £3.4m on toiletries in past year alone
Doctors have given out almost 500,000 prescriptions a year for toiletries such as toothpaste, shampoo, and body wash — costing NHS England £3.4m a year.
Latest figures from NHS Digital showed that a total of 470,678 prescriptions were given out last year, up by nearly 80,000 since 2007.
The most popular items were branded toiletries such as Ambre Solaire after sun, Colgate toothpaste, Aveeno body wash (to which £1.64m was spent on the 195,091 prescriptions of the body wash) and Neutrogena shampoo.
The total cost of supplying patients with the toiletries has skyrocketed from a mere £483,000 in 2007, Sunday Times analysis shows.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said: "GPs are acutely aware of how much money prescriptions cost the NHS, and will always encourage patients who can afford to buy 'over the counter' products to source them themselves. Also, in most cases, generic products will work just as well as branded ones, as well as being much cheaper, and this should be factored in but there are notable exceptions, and supply issues can affect what doctors are able to prescribe from time to time.”
Prof Stokes-Lampard noted that the RCGP has worked closely with NHS England in recent months to help establish new guidelines in identifying over-the-counter medicines that shouldn’t be routinely prescribed through the NHS.
As much as £270,000 was spent on 50,000 prescriptions on Neutrogena T/Gel dandruff shampoo — which can be bought in local chemists for just £7 per bottle.
Other products prescribed by the NHS include E45 Junior Foaming Bath Milk, Vagisil Feminine Wash, and Bio Oil Skincare Oil.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is absurd that items which are so readily available at highstreet shops are still being prescribed.
“Clearly, many primary care treatments will require specialist medicines, but this spending on branded toiletries is not on.”
An NHS England spokesman said: “The NHS in England is already one of the most efficient health systems in the world, but we will always seek better value for taxpayers, which is why we introduced strict guidelines earlier this year to help GPs make smarter prescriptions, which alone will free up £100million to reinvest in better mental health, cancer and A&E services.”
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Image credit: TomFreeze, iStock Images