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Highlights in Update 100

Prescribing medications is the largest patient-level intervention carried out by the General Practice Team. Over one billion prescription items are dispensed every year in England. There was an increase of 58% of prescriptions dispensed between 2003 and 2013 in England. Although prescribing budgets are not held by GP practices, but by CCGs, they are notionally apportioned to each practice. With the current drive to make savings in the NHS, GP practices are coming under more scrutiny by CCGs in terms of their prescribing practices. In areas with particularly poor financial situations, there have been schemes enacted which restrict GPs prescribing certain medications i.e. over the counter medications. This has caused much discussion on the role of the GP as a rationing agent and the effect on the doctor patient relationship. In addition there are increasing quality and safety issues around prescribing. CQC inspections of GP practices often probe prescribing practices and processes in the safe and effective domains. In addition prescribing errors continue to be one of the major reasons for clinical negligence claims in General Practice. Hence prescribing continues to be a hot topic for General Practice. The authors have updated the managing drugs in practice chapter to reflect current best practice and regulations, in order for General Practice teams to reflect on their own current practice.

Wishing all our readers the best

Junaid Bajwa, Ninaj Patel and Mo Ali

From the HOPM team

Let us know what you like and dislike about the handbook so that we can do our best to continue to make it a useful and meaningful aid to managing your practice. Our aim is to provide a more flexible format that can adapt to the ever-changing environment of primary care within days, or even hours, of those changes becoming known. Contact Sarah Young, SAGE Publications, 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP, T 020 7324 8600; E Sarah.Young@sagepub.co.uk.