New report: 1 in 10 drugs prescribed in UK are 'pointless & potentially harmful'

A recent report commissioned by the UK government has revealed that 1 in 10 drugs prescribed to patients via primary care are either inappropriate or inadequate for the purpose – as well as potentially damaging.The report was based on a review conducted by UK National Health Service Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Dr. Keith Ridge, ordered in 2018 and published two weeks ago. During the seven years prior to the review’s commission, NHS spending on medications rose from £13 billion to £18.2 billion ($17.7b to $24.7b), and one of the report’s conclusions was that overprescribing is a “serious problem … as many as 110 million medicines handed to patients each year may be unnecessary and even potentially harmful.”Among the other findings: 15% of UK citizens take five or more drugs per day and 7% take over 8 drugs per day. Such a large ingestion of medication invariably leads to a higher risk of adverse effects – and indeed, 6.5% of all hospital admissions during the period studied were due to the adverse effects of medications.In response to the report, government ministers “ordered a crackdown on overprescribing of medicines,” according to The Guardian.Among the measures under consideration are telling family doctors to boost the use of “social prescribing” which includes suggestions such as gardening, walking, or volunteering.