News
Prescription items still rising
In News
Stay up to date with all the news, learning and insight in the world of pharmacy.Bookmark
Record learning outcomes
Prescription items for antidepressants saw the greatest numeric rise in 2015, according to a report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
In ‘Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community 2005-2015’, the HSCIC says that 61.0m antidepressant items were prescribed in England in 2015 – 31.6m (107.6 per cent) more than in 2005 and 3.9m (6.8 per cent) more than in 2014.
The report also finds that more than 1.08bn prescription items were dispensed overall in 2015 – a 1.8 per cent increase on the previous year and a 50.4 per cent increase on the same figure a decade ago. For the ninth year running, diabetes drugs continued to cost the NHS the most (£936.7m).