Supporting a consultation into prescription of medications available over the counter

Background

The NHS spent approximately £569 million on prescriptions for medicines for minor conditions, which could have been purchased over the counter (OTC) – this consultation outlined proposals to stop or limit the prescribing of these prescriptions.

NHS England commissioned our Medicines Management and Optimisation Team and Communications and Engagement Team to support the consultation.

Action

We led the analysis and presentation of feedback from all channels, including:

• consultation survey (2,600)
• emails and letters (60)
• webinars, events and meetings (20).

Our in-house team undertook all feedback analysis and report writing.

We attended and presented updates and preliminary results to the senior working group committee at NHSE.

Impact

Our report of findings can be found here as it was presented to the NHSE board: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/otc-consutlation-report-of-findings.pdf

We effectively and accurately presented the feedback from a large range of stakeholders from across the English health economy.

The NHSE board used findings presented in the report to modify some of their proposals.

The board also used findings presented in the report as evidence in a subsequent judicial review.