New figures show there were just under two million items dispensed in 2017, costing a combined total of £19,828,000. The number of items fell by 23,481 compared to the previous year, meaning the overall bill – which comes out of the Social Security budget – dropped by £363,000.
The figures are contained in the Social Security Minister’s report for 2017 lodged with the States this week. It states that the majority of the fall in prescriptions is being put down to a change in policy which allowed both pharmacies and GPs to offer patients a flu jab, meaning 18,000 fewer prescriptions were written.
A generic version of an epilepsy and nerve drug also became available last year, meaning the cost fell from £60 to £37 per item. That change alone accounted for a £300,000 reduction in costs.
Medicines to treat heart and circulation diseases remained the most commonly prescribed in Jersey, accounting for around one in three prescriptions.
There was a three per cent increase in prescriptions for antidepressants and an eight per cent increase for diabetes medicine. But there was a seven per cent drop in prescriptions for antibiotics, a six per cent drop in those for sleeping tablets, and a three per cent reduction in painkiller prescriptions.
The overall cost of the 1,959,815 prescriptions in 2017 includes £6,874,000 of fees paid to pharmacies for dispensing them.
Nigel Minihane, chairman of the Jersey Primary Body, which represents GPs, said doctors generally tried to avoid prescribing wherever possible, particularly for antibiotics and potentially addictive drugs.
Responding to the rise in prescriptions for both antidepressants and diabetes medicines, he said: ‘Stress is a way of life, particularly in Jersey, but the prescribing figures are similar to those of other countries. There seems to be an inexorable rise in drug treatment despite psychological referral.
‘Meanwhile rates of diabetes are increasing with obesity. Diabetes is also being picked up earlier and there are now more drugs available to treat it. Some of those drugs are very expensive but there is an argument that this is cheaper than treating the complications. All that said, lifestyle factors should not be forgotten.’
