Medicines wastage
November 25, 2010
WASTED medicines in the UK
cost the NHS health system around
£300m (around AU$482m) per
annum, or around 0.3% of the total
NHS budget, according to a new
report from York Health Economics
and The School of Pharmacy,
University of London.
Not as damning a figure as it first
looks, the report found that 30-50%
of all the waste was unavoidable,
and due to either patient death or
PRN over-estimates.
“There is also no evidence that it
is worse in this country than the
equivalent challenges found in
other developed nations, and
wastage does not, with regard to
residual medicines found in
people’s homes, appear to have
increased since the early 1990s,”
the reports authors surmised.
The report says that around
£150m (AU$241m) worth of
wasted medicines are returned to
pharmacies every year, whilst
around £90m (AU$144m) of
unused medicines remain in
individuals homes.
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