Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
NICE's plan to widen statin use to millions more patients is 'contradictory' and may require low-dose statins to be reclassified as over-the-counter medicines to avoid serious impact on GP workload, a GPC figure has warned.
Dr Andrew Green, chairman of the GPC?s clinical and prescribing subcommittee, questioned whether statins should be made available without a prescription if NICE deems them safe enough to be used preventively among healthy patients.
Prescribing the drugs to millions more patients as proposed by NICE could compound workload pressures on the profession by raising consultation rates, he said.
He warned this would also draw resources towards the healthy and away from the sick.
http://www.gponline.com/bulletin/da...gp-questions-contradictory-nice-statin-drive/
(free registration required)
Dr Andrew Green, chairman of the GPC?s clinical and prescribing subcommittee, questioned whether statins should be made available without a prescription if NICE deems them safe enough to be used preventively among healthy patients.
Prescribing the drugs to millions more patients as proposed by NICE could compound workload pressures on the profession by raising consultation rates, he said.
He warned this would also draw resources towards the healthy and away from the sick.
http://www.gponline.com/bulletin/da...gp-questions-contradictory-nice-statin-drive/
(free registration required)