Home > Research Archive > Medical/Health > Adverse drug reactions cost UK National 'Health' Service £2bn and affect one million people a year
Friday, 04 April 2008
Adverse drug reactions cost UK National 'Health' Service £2bn and affect one million people a year
'The NHS is spending nearly £2bn a year treating patients who have had an adverse reaction to drugs prescribed for them by doctors, according to new figures from the centre-left thinktank Compass.
The amount of money spent on hospital care for those given the wrong medicine or who have reacted badly to a drug could pay for 10,000 new midwives or easily cover the estimated cost of combating MRSA infections, says Compass.
The health minister Dawn Primarolo confirmed to the organisation that 6.5% of hospital admissions are a result of an adverse reaction. Total admissions in 2006 were 16 million, which means that 1,040,000 patients were there as a result of the drugs they were prescribed.'
