Scotland to ask doctors to reduce prescribing of “low value” drugs

The Scottish government is set to publish new guidance for doctors to reduce the use of treatments that are of low or limited value, which would bring Scotland into line with existing policies in England and Wales.A consultation on the new guidance said that NHS Scotland spent £3.8m in 2022-23 on 17 low value treatments that had significant safety concerns, no evidence of clinical effectiveness, or no additional benefits over other cost effective alternatives.1 These items include co-proxamol, glucosamine and chondroitin; homeopathy; and bath and shower emollients, rubefacients and poultices, probiotics, and minocycline for acne.Under the proposed guidance, doctors will be told that they should not initiate a prescription for these low value treatments in primary or secondary care and should deprescribe these items safely for patients to whom they are currently prescribed.A further category of medicines of “limited clinical effectiveness” should be prescribed only as an exception or where…
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