The Value for Money Unit (VFM) commissioned the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory, at Bridgend General Hospital, Bridgend, to undertake a detailed analysis of Welsh Prescribing Analysis and Cost data (PACT), now known as Prescribing Audit and Report Catalogue. The full report was published in October 1995 and distributed to the NHS in Wales in November 1995. The object of this second publication is to provide prescribers with simple guidelines to facilitate the cost-effective prescribing of dressings and wound management materials.
Most of the current recommendations have been drawn from the original study updated to include information on dressings introduced into the list of prescribable items since June 1994.
Prescriptions issued between July 1993 and June 1994 for wound management materials, cost the NHS in Wales a total of £5.5m. This study suggested that this expenditure could be reduced by up to £140k by the introduction of minor changes in prescribing patterns for some of these products with:
More fundamental changes, involving the exclusion of some products of questionable efficacy could result in additional savings up to a maximum of £528k.