The cost of wound care in the community.

Prescriptions issued between July 1993 and June 1994 for wound management materials cost the NHS in Wales a total of 5.5 million pounds. A detailed analysis of Welsh PACT (prescribing analysis and cost) data suggests that this expenditure could be reduced by up to 140,000 pounds by the introduction of minor changes in prescribing patterns. These savings would be achieved with no reduction in the quality of care provided to patients, and in some instances the changes proposed would lead to the use of products which are superior in performance terms to those items that are currently being prescribed. More fundamental changes, involving the exclusion of some products of questionable efficacy, would result in additional savings up to a maximum of 527,000 pounds. As expenditure in Wales is generally considered to represent approximately 10% that of the UK as a whole, this figure could approach 5 million pounds on a national basis.