Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12653

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Publication type: news

Prescription rate falls 11%
Pharmacy Daily 2008 Jan 30
www.pharmacydaily.com.au (registration required)

Full text:

PHARMACIES who have noticed a drop-off in their number of prescriptions over the last few
years can blame their local GPs.
A national survey of general practitioners released this week shows a fall of more than 10% in
the rate of prescriptions being issued by doctors.
The Australian Insititute of Health and Welfare study, undertaken in conjunction with
the University of Sydney, showed that since 1998 GPs reduced their prescribing rate from 93.6 per
100 encounters to 83.3 per 100 in 2006-07.
“This significant decrease in prescription rate means that 10 fewer prescriptions are being
written on average for every 100 GP-patient encounters in 2006-07 than 9 years earlier,” the report
states.
The change means there were more than 11 million fewer prescriptions issued by GPS in 06/
07 compared to 98/99, with most of the reduction coming between 2000 and 2002.
Other interesting results included a big increase in the proportion of prescriptions for
which five repeats were recorded, possibly reflecting a rise in chronic conditions.
There was also little change in the way prescriptions recorded prescribed medications, whether
by brand or generic name.
In both 1998-99 and 2006-07 85% of prescribed medications were recorded by brand name.
The decrease in the prescribing rate was attributed to the increased over the counter
availability of some medications, as well as newer combined drugs which can treat two or more
conditions in a single tablet.
There may also be a so-called “cultural shift” in prescribing patterns, in which both doctors
and patients are less likely to see drugs as an automatic remedy, according to Dr Tony Hobbs of the
Australian General Practice Network.