The scale of repeat prescribing – time for an update

Background The NHS spends billions of pounds annually on repeat prescriptions in primary care, but data on their extent and use is out of date. Understanding the scale of repeat prescribing and for whom it is prescribed is important for the NHS to plan services and develop policies to improve patien...

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Veröffentlicht in:BMC health services research Jg. 14; H. 1; S. 76
Hauptverfasser: Petty, Duncan R, Zermansky, Arnold G, Alldred, David P
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London BioMed Central 19.02.2014
BioMed Central Ltd
Springer Nature B.V
Schlagworte:
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis
Cardiovascular disease
Child
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Demographics
Drug Prescriptions - statistics & numerical data
England - epidemiology
Female
Health Administration
Health care reform
Health Informatics
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Nursing Research
Older people
Organization
Patients
Pharmacy
Population
Practice
Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data
Prescriptions
Primary care
Public Health
Research Article
Sex Factors
State Medicine - statistics & numerical data
structure and delivery of healthcare
Urban areas
Young Adult
England
United Kingdom
Long-term medication
Repeat prescribing
Prescribing analysis
ISSN:1472-6963, 1472-6963
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Zusammenfassung:Background The NHS spends billions of pounds annually on repeat prescriptions in primary care, but data on their extent and use is out of date. Understanding the scale of repeat prescribing and for whom it is prescribed is important for the NHS to plan services and develop policies to improve patient care. Method Anonymous data on prescription numbers and practice population demographics was obtained from GP computer systems in a large urban area. Searches were conducted in November 2011 to identify the numbers of repeat items listed on individuals’ repeat lists by sex and age. The proportion of all prescription items issued as repeats was identified by conducting searches on items issued as repeat and acute prescriptions. Results In the year of study 4,453,225 items were issued of which 3,444,769 (77%) were repeats (mean 13 items per patient/annum) and 1,008,456 (23%) acute prescriptions (mean 3.9 items per patient per annum). The mean number of repeat Items per patient was 1.87 (range 0.45 ages 0-9 years; 7.1 ages 80-89 years). At least one repeat medicine was prescribed to 43% of the population (range 20% for ages 0-9; over 75% for ages 60+). Conclusion A significant proportion of the population receive repeat prescriptions and the proportion increases with age. Whilst the proportion of repeat items to acute items has remained unchanged over the last two decades the number of repeat prescriptions items issued has doubled (from 5.8 to 13.3 items/patient/annum). This has implications for general practice workload, patient convenience, NHS costs and risk.
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ISSN:1472-6963
1472-6963
DOI:10.1186/1472-6963-14-76