• Introduction
• Comment from
  Dr Ann Robinson
• Focus on

• Treatment non-compliance
• Doctor-patient relationships

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• Previous HOTN reports

Norwich Union Healthcare: Health of the Nation 9

Focus On - Treatment non-compliance

Public health spend is an important and regular fixture on the government's agenda and even more so since the controversial NHS reforms.

One of the biggest areas of NHS spend is drugs, a topic matter that has become contentious in itself with the launch of an OFT investigation into the sizeable profits made by drug companies and calls to impose limits.

Frontline GPs were asked for their views on the problem. How big is it? How does it affect the NHS and its patients? And what can be done about it?

The extent of the problem

• On average, GPs believe that two in five patients (40%) do not comply with their treatment regimes

Q: Roughly, what proportion of your patients do you think don't fully comply with their treatment schedules?

• This opinion is based on a mixture of personal experience (87%), patient feedback (59%) and prescribing software (37%)
• Proportionately, younger female patients aged 13-17 years are felt to be the least compliant (25%) as are 18-29 year old males (26%).
• Nearly a quarter (24%) of GPs have become more concerned with non-compliance since the new contract was introduced

GPs were asked to rank the main reasons for non-compliance:

A growing financial burden on the NHS

• GPs believe that about 20p from every £1 spent on their drugs budget is wasted, which is leading to an estimated £2billion * worth of drugs wastage in the UK every year.
• Nearly two thirds of GPs (62%) agree that non-compliance causes a huge burden on the NHS as it contributes to long-term sickness

What's the solution?

• Nearly nine in 10 GPs (88%) agree that more patient education is required around the need for treatment compliance and patient responsibility
• 21% of GPs go so far as to suggest that non-compliant patients should be financially penalised for their treatments, while 30% think their treatments should be withheld
• Four in five (82%) also believe unused prescriptions could be recycled to help alleviate the financial burden
• 71% think relatives and/or carers should take more responsibility for helping patients understand the importance of compliance

* Figure based on an average of £255,780 (Prescription Pricing Authority data) spent by each GP on prescribed drugs a year, totalling £10,231,1200,000 a year for the UK's 40,000 GPs.