Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost was of prescribing paracetamol on the NHS in each of the last five years; and if he will make statement.
The net ingredient cost in the community of paracetamol items prescribed in the United Kingdom and dispensed in England in each of the last five years is provided in the following table. The cost reported is at a reimbursement price. This does not take account of the margin that pharmacies earn on the medicines they dispense. This margin is subsequently taken into account as contributing towards the target level of funding for community pharmacies as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework.
Net Ingredient Cost of prescription items of paracetamol dispensed in England in the specified years within British National Formulary 4.7.1 non-opioid analgesics
Year | Cost of paracetamol prescriptions (£ ‘000s) |
2011 | £61,270.1 |
2012 | £72,039.0 |
2013 | £81,565.2 |
2014 | £85,081.2 |
2015 | £87,619.0 |
Source: Prescription Cost Analysis