[Pharmanaut]

Originally Posted by Linnear

The new ones never cost 10p though do they?


Saying that did you see this:

http://www.pharmj.com/Editorial/2006.../spectrum.html

Interesting reading and something I've always said.

Why should the NHS pay for Aspirin and Calpol. Blacklist the lot!

Agreed, everybody knows that the NHS drugs budget is the way it is because the "greedy pharmacists are dispensing too many prescriptions". (A quote [perhaps misquoted] from a tabloid from a few years ago).

I think there's a mystique around stuff that is OTC. It is viewed a more powerful when the patient has it prescribed and does not know that it is OTC and also does not know that it is low cost.

The "Broad Spectrum" Article should be reprinted in the daily press.
However, I'm very jaded about what would happen as the NHS would have to get a management consultant or two in to investigate and set savings targets; and they would have to employ some managers with accompanying support staff to look make sure that the savings targets were met.