As the cash-strapped NHS looks to cut costs, Somerset’s Clinical

Commissioning Group is urging patients to buy their own treatments for minor ailments.

But what effect will this have on those in need of aid?

Chief reporter PHIL HILL looks into the issue...

YOU wouldn’t go to your GP for a prescription for paracetamol if you had a few minor coughs and sneezes or a bit of a headache – or would you?

Well, hard to believe as it is, thousands of us in Somerset did just that last year, with the NHS bill in the county for the tiny pills totalling a staggering £800,000.

You might well ask what people are playing at when you’d only have to part with 23p for a packet in your local supermarket.

But that’s not all.

Last year Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (SCCG), which plans and funds health services for more than half a million people in the county, forked out almost £10 per head – literally in some cases, as you will see – on products for minor ailments.

Among the items listed on SCCG’s near-£5m bill were dandruff and head lice shampoos; sun creams; moisturisers for minor skin conditions; athletes’ foot cream; mouthwash; nasal decongestants; slimming preparations; treatments for warts and verrucas; creams for bruises, tattoos, varicose veins and scars; ear wax removers; nappy rash cream; and even toothpaste.

That’s £5m that could be diverted to cover the cost of treating more serious illnesses.

But with the NHS creaking under the strain of increased demand and ever-higher expectations, your doctor might not be in such a hurry to write you a prescription for these and other cures for non serious ailments.

From next month, SCCG is recommending Somerset’s 74 GP practices stop prescribing medicines or products for the most minor conditions that are easily obtainable over the counter anyway.

Minehead GP Dr Ed Ford, the group’s interim chairman, said: “We want the public to take their health seriously and appreciate that most minor ailments or illnesses are usually self-limiting and go away over time.

“Treating your own ailment is, in a surprising number of cases, the quickest and easiest of options.

“If you are not sure what to do, you can always get advice from your local pharmacist or call NHS 111, the 24-hour telephone helpline – they are happy to signpost you to the right information, advice or health service for your level of illness or ailment.

“The money the CCG currently spends on funding items for minor ailments could be much better spent if used to support patients with the most serious health conditions.”

Having got that off our chests – without a GP prescription – there is another area where Somerset GPs are being asked to save hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

Coeliac patients in the county are being told they can have their cake and eat it – but from December 1 they’ll probably have to pay for it.

SCCG is recommending that GPs no longer prescribe gluten-free foods for the disease, which causes an adverse reaction in the small intestine when sufferers eat foods made from wheat, barley and rye.

The current cost of prescribing gluten-free foods in Somerset is £350,000 a year.

Dr Ford said: “Following a gluten-free diet can be achieved without resorting to specially-formulated foods on prescription and the continued prescribing of gluten-free products is not considered good use of scarce NHS resources.

“Many more gluten-free products can now be found on the shelves of supermarkets, including staples like bread, flour and pasta.

“We will continue to support, advise and monitor patients diagnosed with coeliac disease through GP practices, community dieticians and hospital gastroenterology departments.”

But Helen Petri, 62 who, with her daughter, Olivia, 22, has coeliac disease, has calculated that the SCCG recommendations will set them back a combined extra £50 a week.

“Eating gluten-free food is not a lifestyle choice for coeliacs,” said Mrs Petri.

“Coeliacs have to strictly adhere to a gluten-free diet, otherwise they can develop serious health complications in later life such as osteoporosis, bowel cancer and fertility problems.

“Gluten-free can be three to four times more expensive in supermarkets than their non-gluten-free equivalent.

“The majority of coeliacs are going to struggle having to pay these extra sums of money to buy staple foods.

“I’d like to see staple food such as bread on prescription, but I agree that luxuries like cakes and pizza shouldn’t be.

“It’s bad news for people on low incomes and students like Olivia who don’t have the extra cash to go buying more expensive products.”

Mrs Petri said coeliacs are now faced with a postcode lottery as some authorities are continuing to provide gluten-free food on prescription.

Sarah Sleet, of Coeliac UK, believes the money-saving policy is short-sighted and self-defeating and could simply store up problems for the health service and patients for the future.

She said: “Gluten-free food prescribing is a low-cost NHS prevention strategy.

“Good dietary adherence ensures that patients don’t develop serious health complications associated with untreated coeliac disease, for which the treatment costs are likely to be much more expensive over the long-term for the NHS.

”We believe that an end to gluten-free prescribing risks longer-term costs to the NHS and exacerbates health inequalities, further disadvantaging the most vulnerable patients with coeliac disease.”