The number of prescription items dispensed in England rose by just under four per cent in 2011, but the cost of medicines to the NHS was less than in the previous year, NHS figures published this week (July 31) have shown.

Last year, 961.5 million prescription items were dispensed across England, with a net ingredient cost to the NHS of £8.8 billion – a 0.3 per cent fall from the cost in the previous year. An average of 18.3 items were dispensed for every person in England in the year, up from 17.7 in 2010. And the number of items dispensed nationally has rocketed 64 per cent in the past decade, the figures showed.

The data, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, revealed that the average net ingredient cost per head of the population fell 1.1 per cent to £167.22 in 2011, down from £169.13 in 2010. In 2001 the average cost per head was £123.69, meaning costs per head have spiralled 35 per cent over the past decade.

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	69 per cent of all items dispensed last year were generic medicines, which comprised just under 30 per cent of the total ingredient cost. But prescriptions for central nervous system conditions were overall the most costly to the NHS.

While the number of items prescribed was rising, the net cost to the NHS was actually falling, NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said. "This may be due to the steady increase in use of generic formulations of commonly prescribed drugs," he said.

"The rise in prescription items dispensed in England may well reflect the evolving demands of our ageing society, prescribing practises and the availability of more treatments," Mr Straughan added.

The drug with the greatest hike in the number of items dispensed in 2011 was omeprazole (2.6 million items). Other drugs that experienced steep growth were:

●        bisoprolol

●        citalopram

●        simvastatin

●        amlodipine

●        levothyroxine

●        lansoprazole

●        metformin

●        influenza vaccine.

Read CPD editor Chris Chapman's blog – containing tables, analysis, insights and trends in the Health and Social Care Information Centre prescription data.