Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill

James Cartlidge Excerpts
2nd reading: House of Commons & Programme motion: House of Commons
Monday 24th October 2016

(8 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017 View all Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
James Cartlidge Portrait James Cartlidge (South Suffolk) (Con)
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I congratulate my right hon. Friend on this effort. I recently received a written answer saying that last year GPs spent £85 million prescribing paracetamol. A packet of 500 mg paracetamol costs 19p in Asda, and I wonder whether this Bill will enable us to look those costs and whether such prescribing is appropriate.

Jeremy Hunt Portrait Mr Hunt
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that issue. Although the measures he mentions are not directly covered in this Bill, he reminds the House that the business of getting value for money from our drugs business is everyone’s business throughout the NHS. There is a huge amount of prescribing of medicines that is not strictly necessary. Indeed, we had further evidence of that from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges this morning. My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point: this Bill is part of the effort to get better value for money from our medicines budget, but initiatives such as the one he talks about are equally important.