£15Billion NHS Pill Bill

The NHS cost as half of woman are on prescription drugs.

The Sun newspaper reports that almost half England’s population takes prescription drugs – costing the NHS £15billion a year.

Fifty per cent of woman and 43 per cent of men used at least one medicine in the last week.

And almost a quarter of both sexes took at least three – hitting 70 per cent for over-75s, the Health Survey for England revealed.

Cholesterol-lowering statins, pain relief and anti-depressants were among the most common.

More than 30 per cent of prescriptions – of which 2.7million are dispensed daily – are for cardiovascular disease and the total pill bill out of the NHS’s near-£100billion annual budget is more than £15billion.

The survey also showed the proportion of woman smokers from 2003 to 2013 fell from 24 to 17 per cent, and from 27 to 24 per cent of men.

About a quarter of men and women are obese, while 41 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women are overweight.

For the over-65s, a third of women and almost a quarter of men needed some social care, and that will spiral as the population ages, the report said.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre, who ran the survey, said it provided “valuable information” on the nation’s health and lifestyle.

A much needed solution to save and sustain our NHS, never mind improve it, is just not forthcoming.