Introduction -

Across Europe, as public budgets are tightened, there is pressure to lower spending on prescription medicines. These well-understandable budgetary pressures have led to some controversial suggestions, notably proposals to ease the rules on the prescription of off-label medicines to save costs where off-label drugs are cheaper than the drugs approved for the condition in question. On the whole, these proposals have not been adopted because of concerns about putting cost-cutting ahead of patient safety and because of legal concerns, such as those highlighted by the European Court in Commission v. Poland earlier this year. This article looks at one such example involving the prescription guidance of the UK General Medical Council (GMC) as well as exploring the issue more generally.

The 2011 GMC Consultation on Proposed Changes to Its Prescription Guidance -

In 2011, the GMC proposed making changes to its “Good practice in prescribing medicines”, the guidance it offers to doctors in prescribing medicines and which supplements the GMC’s core guidance on “Good Medical Practice”.

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