OTC Briefing and position statement

NHS Kent and Medway spent £18million on over the counter (OTC) medicine in the past year.

As you are aware, NHS England has already published guidance on reducing the amount of OTC medication provided on prescription.

To help implement this guidance consistently across Kent and Medway, the ICB’s Medicines Optimisation team has prepared the briefing (here) and position statement (here).

The briefing document outlines several resources to help reduce this cost, including a support line for patient or prescriber queries, and patient messaging. The position statement clarifies under which limited circumstances a patient should be eligible for an OTC prescription.

By helping to support this piece of work, you will help reduce the cost to the NHS and free up practice and pharmacy time that would otherwise be spent processing OTC prescriptions.