Up to £2bn may be Wasted by NHS on Ineffective Treatments
Up to £2 billion is wasted each year by the National Health Service on ineffective treatments, claims the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
The AMRC is the body that represents 22 royal medical colleges.
The AMRC argues there needs to be a change in culture for how doctors prescribe treatments. It says 'more doesn't always mean better' when issuing prescriptions. It claims dozens of common medical treatments and procedures, from treating grazes to cancer, routinely given to patients by doctors are effectively pointless. Not only that, they could be worse than doing nothing at all due to side effects of the treatments.
One example given was saline solution to clean cuts and grazes to avoid infection. This is regularly provided, the AMRC says, despite water being as effective. The AMRC also controversially questioned cholesterol checks.