Prescribing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to people at high risk of harm from them is estimated to cost the NHS in England around £31 million and cause more than 6,000 lost years of good health over 10 years, finds a study published by The BMJ today. NSAIDs continue to be a source of avoidable harm and healthcare costs, and more needs to be done to address this, especially in high risk groups, say the researchers. NSAIDs are used for pain and inflammation and are one of the most widely prescribed groups of medicines in the world, But they are known to increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, heart attacks, stroke, and kidney damage.
Yet despite a range of initiatives to reduce their use, NSAID prescribing is still common in people at high risk of harm due to older age, previous peptic ulcer, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, or who are taking other medications that can increase bleeding risk. To help inform policy in this area, the researchers set out to estimate levels of patient harm and the costs of NSAID prescribing to high risk groups in the NHS in England over a 10 year period. The researchers drew on previously published research on prescribing safety in England, which provided a baseline number of people affected by 'hazardous prescribing events' in April 2020, based on data from the national roll-out of PINCER (pharmacist-led information technology intervention for medication errors) and prevalence data from 1060 general practices (10,90.