Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Slight fall in Scottish prescribing costs to £1.343 billion

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman

The cost of NHS prescription treatments in Scotland came to £1.343 billion in the most recent financial year, new figures have shown.

The figure represented a slight fall of around £6 million to Scotland’s overall bill, as years of soaring expenditure on prescription drugs finally dipped.

NHS Grampian recorded the lowest average spend per person as Scottish costs fell from £1.349bn in 2017/18 to £1.343bn in 2018/19.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman praised doctors for effective prescribing but opposition politicians claimed more still had to be done to prevent overspending on medication.

Despite the recent decrease, the figures published by the NHS Information Services Division (ISD) showed prescription spending had risen by more than £230m since 2009/10.

North East MSP Lewis Macdonald, who is convener of Holyrood’s health committee, said the issue would be examined by the committee.

The Labour MSP said: “There is a lot to be gained by managing prescribing costs effectively, in terms of freeing up resources, and that’s a continuing challenge.”

The average cost per person in NHS Grampian was £214.83 in 2018/19, a figure that represented a 3.6% decrease on the previous year and was the lowest in Scotland.

The average cost in NHS Highland was £248.87, a figure that was a 0.9% fall from the previous year but which was just above the Scottish average of £246.96.

When compared with 2009/10 both heath boards had experienced an overall increase – 18.8% for Grampian and 16.2% for Highland.

Tory MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Alexander Burnett, said: “One of the biggest challenges NHS Grampian faces is our ageing population.  In the last decade, there have been significant overspends on prescription medicine. I think the two are linked.”

Mr Burnett said the recent decrease could be down to GPs now “thinking twice” before prescribing drugs that were expensive for the NHS but cheap for consumers.

An NHS Grampian spokeswoman said the health board monitored prescribing behaviour.

She added: “One of the key things that we can all do is to only order the medicines that we need.”

Ms Freeman said the 2018/19 drop was “testament to the hard work of the NHS, GPs, and pharmacists in delivering effective prescribing for patients”.

She added: “This is despite treating an ageing population, increasingly complex healthcare needs and more people living with long-term conditions.”

An NHS Highland spokeswoman said the number of its patients aged 65 or over was higher and increasing more quickly than other parts of Scotland.

Despite this, the spokeswoman said, the number of prescriptions dispensed had not increased.