(2) what guidance his Department has issued to NHS organisations on the use of (a) ScriptSwitch and (b) other systems used by clinicians to alert them to cheaper substitute medicines;
(3) how much (a) his Department and (b) the NHS spent on ScriptSwitch in each of the last three years;
(4) what contractual arrangements there are between ScriptSwitch Ltd and (a) his Department and (b) the NHS;
(5) what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the use of ScriptSwitch on (a) patient safety, (b) patient safety with specific regard to those patients with co-morbidities, (c) quality of care, (d) prescribing costs and (e) clinical freedom to prescribe; and if he will make a statement.
Following publication of the National Audit Office's May 2007 report Prescribing costs in primary care, the Department issued guidance entitled Strategies to Achieve Cost Effective Prescribing on 26 June 2007. This outlines advice to primary care trusts (PCTs) and general practitioner practices on how to consider releasing resources through so-called 'therapeutic switching' strategies. It gives details of a number of principles that should underpin any strategy, including the principle that decisions should be based on patients' individual clinical needs. The guidance has been placed in the Library and is available from the Department's website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_076350
We are aware that a commercially available prescribing support software tool provided by Scriptswitch Ltd has been adopted by a number of PCTs. The Department does not hold information on the numbers of PCTs using the tool, on individual contractual arrangements or on national health service expenditure on this product. The Department has not undertaken any assessment of the effects of the use of Scriptswitch by the NHS.
The Department is unaware of any other system similar to that provided by Scriptswitch Ltd. Apart from the questions asked by the hon. Member for Eddisbury, in the period 31 August 2007 to 1 September 2008 the Department received three written representations concerning Scriptswitch.