Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks has called for greater emphasis to be placed on reducing the extent of medicine waste.
The South Wales Central AM wrote to all Welsh health boards after meeting Community Pharmacy Wales which says £50m worth of medicines are returned to Welsh pharmacies and GP surgeries annually. This does not include that binned alongside household waste.
Chris Franks asked for data on the amount of medicine wasted/not properly used. Aneurin Bevan said that its business service centre recorded the number of 30 litre yellow bins of medicines returned from community pharmacies. This ranged from 375 bins in April 2010 to 303 in August, 2010.
The board said that local teams had introduced a waste reduction scheme operated from community pharmacies which had led to £30,000 savings with a target of £50,000 by the end of the year.
Hywel Dda said that there had been a decrease in prescription items during and for two months after a campaign launch which amounted to a reduction in spending of £147,000.
Powys estimated the cost of medicines returned for destruction at £300,000 although this excluded medicines disposed of other than at pharmacies.
Betsi Cadwaladr said during 2010 the amount of waste collected from surgeries amounted to 28,784kgs – equivalent to a cost of almost £3.5m.
Cwm Taf was unable to provide any statistic data, blaming logistical difficulties in obtaining accurate information while Abertawe Bro Morgannwg said there was no co-ordinated accurate analysis of medicines waste volume and cost across Wales and this information was difficult and labour intensive to capture. It did not have accurate data.
Chris Franks said: “Millions of pounds is being wasted and this is money which could be well spent on services within the NHS. This is particularly important at present because of the pressures on the health budget.
“I do find it astounding that some health boards were unable to provide any statistical information on this issue while others did provide details, along the amount varied greatly. Plaid wants this to be looked at as a matter of urgency because there is clearly a need for more accurate information to be obtained on wastage across Wales to find out the full extent of the problem.
“The Welsh Government has launched a campaign to reduce medicine waste and health boards clearly have a key role. In addition, patients need to order only what they need while doctors should, where possible, aim to avoid prescribing too much medicine.”
