UK Health Statistics - Latest OHE Compendium

The new edition of the Compendium of Health Statistics published by theUK drug industry-backed Office of Health Economics shows that the UK devoted 6.9% of Gross Domestic Product to health care provision in 1994 (including both public and private spending), the most recent year for which these data are available. This compares with 9.5% for Germany, 14.3% for the USA and an average for all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries of 7.9% during that year.

In 1996, it says, prescription drugs cost the National Health Service L5.09 billion ($8.10 billion) or 12% of total NHS spending, averaging L86.89 ($138.26) per capita per annum and L9.10 ($14.48) per prescription. In 1996, the cost of medicines to the Family Health Services (which represents the general medical, dental, pharmaceutical and ophthalmic services provided throughout the UK by health care professionals who are independent contractors to the NHS) was L4.82 billion, compared with L4.55 billion in 1995, representing real per capita costs of L82.12 (L77.79 in 1995) and 47.1% of the total distribution of FHS spending in 1996, up from 44.8% in 1995.

UK Prescribing "Modest" By International Standards UK prescribing levels remain modest by international standards, says the OHE, at ninth place in a comparison of 18 OECD countries, with 10 prescription items dispensed per capita (1995 figures). Italy and Finland were the lowest, at 5.2 items and 5.7 respectively, while France and Luxembourg were the highest, at 52.2 and 26 respectively. Of the total costs of pharmaceutical services in the UK in 1995, about L440 million was contributed by patient charges, the balance (L4.53 billion) being financed directly by public funds.