[Pharmaceutical expenditure in primary care according to the prescription source].

OBJECTIVE

To find the origin of primary care pharmaceutical prescription and where expenditure is attributed.

DESIGN

A descriptive study of a prospective character.

SETTING

Medical clinics of a primary care team at the Torre del Mar Health Centre, Málaga.

MAIN RESULTS

A total of 2,580 prescriptions, whose average price was 1,415.4 pesetas, with a range from 135 to 35,889 pesetas, were issued. An average of 143.3 prescriptions a day were issued during the days analysed. The number of prescriptions issued by PC itself made up more than half the prescriptions, similar to the number of prescriptions originating elsewhere. The average price is greater for outside prescriptions than for prescriptions from within PC. Total accumulated cost was 3,651,912 pesetas. Expenditure on outside prescriptions was 1,774,783 pesetas, 48.59% of total cost. Total cost of prescriptions from within PC was 1,733,701 pesetas, 47.47% of the total.

CONCLUSIONS

PC has been assigned the role of issuing most prescriptions in the health-care system. This causes various problems within PHC: 1) a major administrative overload; 2) a great imaginative effort to try to avoid bureaucratic burdens; and 3) a real ability to rationalise the offer of medicines using quality criteria of only about 50%, as the other 50% of medicines originates outside PHC. We believe an extension of the programmes to guarantee quality in specialist care is needed, particularly of those programmes relating to pharmaceutical prescription.