Lincolnshire’s NHS services spend £152 million on prescription medicines for patients, new study shows

Lincolnshire’s NHS services spend more than £150 million on prescription medication for just over 800,000 people — prescribing an average of 27 items per person in the county.

The analysis was conducted by NHSDiscountOffers, and looks at prescription costs for Integrated Care Boards across the country, which are local bodies that allocate funding for health services that meet the needs of local populations.

Lincolnshire’s Integrated Care Board spends the 7th most, in terms of cost per person, of any in the country, with a figure of £190 per person in the county.

This comes from an overall spend of £152,248,264 being divided by the population of people within Lincolnshire ICB’s remit, which is 801,457.

However, the actual figure of £152 million is far below that of most other Integrated Care Boards in the country, with areas like Greater Manchester spending almost four times as much as Lincolnshire, and even some London boroughs spent around £100 million more than Lincolnshire — the country’s second largest county.

It is a considerably lower average figure than that of neighbouring Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which has the highest cost per person rate of any ICB in the country at £332 — 74% higher than Lincolnshire.

Some 21 million prescription items are bought by Lincolnshire ICB to treat patients in the county, working out at 27 items per person.

A spokesperson for the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board said it uses prescriptions “proportionally” to “slow down progression” of long-term health conditions and “support” the Lincolnshire population.

“Lincolnshire ICB constantly look at and monitor our prescribing patterns and we support our prescribers to make the best prescribing choices for our patients that are both clinically effective and cost-effective.

“This helps us to plan and effectively introduce newer technologies in medicines to benefit our population and promote longer healthier lives.”

It is a figure that only serves to highlight the extent of the financial challenge facing NHS services, no less so here in Lincolnshire.

Earlier this year, the county’s director for public health, Derek Ward, called for reform to the system that would focus on using funds more efficiently, saying that it is “about doing things differently for the people of Lincolnshire.”

“We’re probably spending £2 billion for around 750,000 people in Lincolnshire and it’s still not enough,” he said.

“I think one of the conversations we need to have as a country is do we want to increase the money, decrease the amount, or keep it the same?

“But regardless of the answer to that question, we’re going to have to change how we deliver our services, and we have to help people understand how to get the most out of those services.”

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