14 November 2006

The results of the fifth national survey of general practitioners undertaken by the National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) indicates an improvement of GPs knowledge and behaviours around Quality Use of Medicines (QUM). This result follows eight years of NPS QUM education to GPs.

“Encouragingly, the majority of GPs rated NPS as being of value to them. This reported value of NPS has more than doubled in six years. GPs were very positive in their views on the clinical relevance, evidence-based nature and influence of NPS on their prescribing,” said Dr Lynn Weekes, CEO NPS.

Evidence based knowledge of quality use of prescription medicines has increased, with most GPs (68%) correctly indicating that they would use amoxycillin as the first choice for a patient presenting for the first time with acute sinusitis requiring antibiotic therapy , which is a significant increase over time from 44% in 2000.

However there is still work to be done to address the knowledge gaps, as GPs knowledge around treatment of heart failure was variable. While nearly all GPs correctly answered that ACE inhibitors have been shown to reduce mortality in heart failure, only 48% knew that this was true for angiotensin II receptor antagonists.

GPs awareness of Consumer Medicines Information (CMIs) has significantly increased from 47% to 83%, in the two years since the last survey, and the majority of GPs agreed that in the last five years they had noticed a positive increase in the time they spent discussing medicine issues with patients. However, fewer reported a similar change in communication with pharmacists.

The NPS survey also examined GPs awareness and behaviours around complementary medicines. The majority of GPs (79%) agreed that it was important to ask patients if they were taking complementary medicines while a further 20% agreed that it was to some extent important. However, GPs were divided on how often, when taking a medication history or reviewing a patient’s medication, they asked about complementary medicines. A small number (4%) reported that they never did so, while 12% did so all the time and a fifth (18%) did so half of the time.

The surveyed GPs provided valuable feedback on their views around the place of generic medicines in prescribing. Typical comments were around the confusion caused by different brand names, tablet shapes and sizes and how this related to patient safety, the effectiveness and bioequivalence of generic medicines and distrust or mistrust of pharmacists’ intentions for providing alternatives.

The report summary is available here.

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National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) is a member-based organisation providing accurate, balanced, evidence-based information and services to health professionals and the community on Quality Use of Medicines (QUM).