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The Role of Prescribing in General Practice

Prescribing is an important activity for general practitioners. Patients rely on the medicines that their doctors choose. From a medical perspective, the prescriber should be adequately trained to perform this important clinical task. Although patients demand the best medicines, there is an ongoing tension between choosing the clinically most advantageous products and what the NHS can afford.

Since 1948, successive governments have introduced various policies to control doctor prescribing as a means of controlling Exchequer spending on drugs. However, the history of medicines policy has received little attention in academic and trade journals. Therefore, Professor Darrin Baines, an economist from Coventry University, has embarked on a long-term research project to map out the history of prescribing policy in the NHS. Recently, his work has resulted in a series of articles in the Prescriber magazine.

Although history can be fun to learn, is there anything that can be of any use from the past for doctors and policy makers today?

Yes”, says Professor Baines, “history matters

By looking into the past, we can see how modern policies evolved. We can see how compromises and choices were made. We can see how today’s policy has been shaped by previous events. Therefore, a good knowledge of prescribing policy can better helps policy-makers, CCGs and prescribers to better understand how to control drug costs whilst meeting patient needs.

If you would like to learn more about Professor’s Baines work, please visit darrinbaines.net or email him at: darrin.baines@coventry.ac.uk

 

Thu 15 Jan 2015, 10:00 | Tags: Local Research