Monday, May 28, 2007

Managers wasted on drugs?

The Health Service Journal ran a piece on the money being wasted by GPs on overpriced prescriptions (i.e. prescribing expensive versions of drugs when cheaper generic are available). Apparently £200 million could be saved by better prescribing - the extra spending is mostly through GPs listening to the drug companies touting their wares rather than listening to NHS prescribing advisors. Apparently the drugs companies spend £850 million each year on marketing products to GPs.

Rather than comment on the madness of the market place in health care, as I am sure you are expecting me to, I thought I would share with you the conference that the HSJ is running on medicines management.


"Medicines Management Across NHS Interfaces - Maximising the contribution of medicines management to deliver cost-effect, patient centred care". Does anyone remember Gus Hedges? Drop the Dead Donkey's character Gus was famed for management gobbledygook - e.g. "I just wanted to watch the editorial unit synchromeshing with the production matrix...".

Stuart


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