NHS England's plan to reduce wasteful and ineffective drug prescriptions

The NHS in England must make around £22bn (€25bn; $29bn) of efficiency savings by 2020. Prescribing costs in primary care, currently around £9.2bn annually, are a key component of the NHS budget in England. Inevitably, the NHS has begun to look at the drugs prescribed by general practitioners to identify areas in which savings could be made, ideally without compromising patient care or worsening health inequalities. This process was initially led by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), focusing on drugs that are either of limited clinical value or which patients can buy from retailers without a prescription (“over the counter” drugs).