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OTHER KEY AREAS
Prescribing
Prescribing of drugs accounts for a significant proportion of the total expenditure in primary care. 57.6 million prescription items were issued in Scotland in 1998/99, equivalent to 11 items per person, at a cost of £630 million.
The percentage of prescriptions which were for generic drugs has continued to increase from around 40% in 1992/93 to almost 67% in 1998/99, which is 3.5% higher than the previous year. The following chart illustrates the variation by Health Board, from 50.32 % in Shetland to 73.63% in Lothian.
Percentage of Prescriptions which were for Generic Products in 1998-99
Information Technology
New GPASS
GPASS is the national computer system for General Practitioners. During 1998 a programme to migrate all existing GPASS users and those GP practices that wished to convert to the new Windows based system commenced with an additional £10m investment to that already made available under the GP Computer Reimbursement Scheme for 1999-2000. At March 1999 new GPASS had been installed in 92 practices.
GP Computer Reimbursement Scheme
Under this scheme, Health Boards spent £6.2 million in 1998/99 in assisting GPs with the costs of systems purchase, leasing, maintenance, upgrading and initial staff costs in setting up computer systems. This was an increase of about 17% on 1997/98.
Clinical Uses for New Technologies (WHEECH)
During 1998, 23 projects were sponsored to explore and develop clinical uses for new technologies. These have focused on using IT to improve clinical communications within primary care and between primary care and specialist services to improve patient care.
Electronic Transmission of Prescription Information
£4m was made available in March 1999 to take forward this initiative over the period to 2002. It has the potential to deliver a wide variety of benefits, particularly for patients.
Premises
Investment in primary care premises also continued to grow. Around 40% of Scotland's GP practices operate from publicly owned health centres. In February 1999, a £15.5 million modernisation programme for Health Centre type accommodation to address priority projects was announced. The remaining 60% of GPs practice from privately owned or leased premises which can attract a range of support payments from Health Boards. Over £22 million was spent by Health Boards in 1998/99 on improving and supporting GP premises, an increase of about 7% on the previous year.
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