Table 2.
Baseline net ingredient costs per 1000 patients for selected groups of drugs and preparations from chapters 1-6, 8, and 10 of British National Formulary. Figures are mean (interquartile range) net ingredient costs per 1000 patients (£) for financial year 1994-5 for different variables* for 54 general practices according to increase in prescribing costs
| Lowest increase | Average increase | Greatest increase | Kruskal-Wallis test
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| χ2 (df=2) | P value | |||||
| Potential saving available if brand named preparations had been prescribed instead of generic equivalents | 1666 (1494) | 1367 (1268) | 1361 (1725) | 0.60 | 0.742 | |
| Modified release drugs | 2641 (1834) | 2710 (1317) | 2638 (1787) | 1.64 | 0.442 | |
| Combination products | 2779 (1749) | 2971 (1666) | 3075 (1478) | 3.18 | 0.204 | |
| Drugs of limited therapeutic value | 164 (402) | 194 (300) | 285 (491) | 2.61 | 0.272 | |
| Drugs that could have been bought over counter | 2019 (854) | 1 956 (950) | 2189 (1072) | 3.39 | 0.183 | |
| Topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs | 488 (428) | 544 (447) | 616 (491) | 5.99 | 0.050 | |
| Overall costs for “new and expensive drugs” | 7443 (6487) | 8676 (3475) | 8965 (4318) | 3.09 | 0.213 | |
| Specific “new and expensive” drug groups: | ||||||
| Proton pump inhibitors | 2925 (2077) | 3155 (2438) | 3467 (2843) | 6.95 | 0.031 | |
| Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors | 1174 (1058) | 1279 (1042) | 1684 (1107) | 6.36 | 0.042 | |
| Lipid lowering drugs | 614 (530) | 598 (684) | 593 (657) | 0.84 | 0.656 | |
| Oestrogens and hormone replacement | 1246 (1346) | 1181 (672) | 1186 (757) | 0.20 | 0.904 | |
| Long acting β2 stimulants, fluticasone preparations, and sumatriptan | 1510 (1749) | 1402 (1408) | 1425 (997) | 0.14 | 0.934 | |
| Expensive hospital-initiated drugs | 1689 (2136) | 1544 (1430) | 1329 (1695) | 1.46 | 0.483 | |
*
Details shown in Appendix.