UK department of health guidance on prescribing for impotence following the introduction of sildenafil: potential to contain costs in the average health authority district.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness at containing service costs of the UK's Department of Health (DoH) guidance on prescribing for impotence implemented after the introduction of sildenafil and taking effect from 1 July 1999.


METHODS
A pragmatic economic analysis of the impact of the DoH guidance on specialist-care activity and costs and primary-care prescribing costs from the perspective of the UK National Health Service. Primary-care prescribing costs and specialist-care activity and cost data were collected for 12-month periods before and after the introduction of the guidance.


METHODS
Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Health Authority.


RESULTS
Specialist-care activity and associated costs fell by 70% in the first year following the introduction of the DoH guidance while primary-care prescribing costs doubled. The overall cost for providing impotence services in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire in 1999-2000 was pound 232,619, and is similar to the cost incurred in 1998-1999 of pound 225,108 (uplifted to 1999-2000 values).


CONCLUSIONS
The DoH guidance on prescribing for impotence has effectively reduced specialist-care activity and costs in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire. It offers the potential to allow the overall costs of impotence services in the district to be contained even with the use of higher cost drugs, such as sildenafil.
Ashton-Key
Martin
M
Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust, Vantage Point, Brighton, England. martin.ak@doctors.org.uk
Sadler
Michael
M
Walmsley
Byron
B
Holmes
Simon
S
Randall
Sarah
S
Cummings
Michael H
MH
D000328:Adult; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010879:Piperazines / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011687:Purines; D000068677:Sildenafil Citrate; D013450:Sulfones; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
D010879:Piperazines; D011687:Purines; D013450:Sulfones; D000068677:Sildenafil Citrate