title: An historical survey of UK government measures to control the NHS medicines expenditure from 1948 to 1996.
abstract: Since the inception of the National Health Service in 1948, successive British governments have taken various measures to restrain the growth of the medicines bill. A total of 10 different measures have been introduced with very limited success. The most effective measures have been those directed at increasing the level of generic prescribing; such measures mean that the patient is treated with older, off-patent medicines which, although cheap, are not necessarily cost effective or the most clinically effective. Possible future directions for curtailing expenditure include controlling the price of off-patent branded medicines to the level of generic products, and the initiation of a government policy to actively encourage prescribing of newer medicines where these are shown to be more clinically effective or more cost effective.
authors.affiliation: John Griffin Associates Ltd, Welwyn Garden City, England.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D003284:Contract Services; D003363:Cost Control; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000191:economics*; D016568:Drugs, Generic / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D013222:State Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D006113:United Kingdom