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The number of prescriptions dispensed in Guernsey last year reached nearly 1.7million - up 2.7% on the year before.
Just over one million of these were not subject to a prescription charge, with 630,499 paid prescriptions issued during 2023 - 5.7% more than in 2022.
With an average drug cost per prescription of £11.63, it means prescriptions cost the island nearly £19m last year. Residents were paying nearly out nearly £3m in prescription charges - up 15.8% on 2022.
The data has been released by the Prescribing Support Unit (PSU) which works in partnership with healthcare staff across the primary and secondary care sectors to promote 'high-quality, cost-effective prescribing' in the Bailiwick.
The annual report - published this week - looks at the trends in prescribing, and the likely reasons for those trends.
Pictured: Data included in the 2023 report.
Specific costs for some routinely prescribed drugs have been highlighted as having increased over the past year.
This includes "significant increases in drugs used to treat diabetes," said the report, with the cost of some anti-diabetic medicines going up 13.6% to more than £1.4 million.
This increase has been "driven by increasing numbers of people with high BMIs in the community" with increasing levels of complications from the disease posing "a significant cost pressure on health expenditure".
Other fees which have increased include the cost of supervision for patients taking opioid substitutes - costing £141K during 2023 - up 15.6% on 2022.
The cost of the island's Oxygen Service was £460,344 last year, 14% higher than in 2022 and reversing the fall of 15% in 2021/2022.
While the States approved the use of more NICE approved drugs in 2020, the Prescribing Advisor says there was a lower-than-expected increase in total drug costs.
This was partly due to fact that the prescribing process for out-patient oncology drugs was changed in mid-2022, said Geraldine O’Riordan.
“There was a small reduction in the gross drug costs in 2023, despite the on-going approval of many new NICE TA drugs," she explained.
“HSC secures medicines for islanders often at heavily discounted NHS prices via a combination of complex rebates on drugs dispensed by retail pharmacies and discounts for hospital products. Guernsey has no automatic entitlement to NHS discounts and rebates in the Bailiwick are complex to set up, manage and monitor so it is a testament to the hard work of the pharmaceutical staff that significant savings of up to £750,000 have been made.
“However, in both 2022 and in 2023 there was a noticeable increase in prescribing and costs for people who pay prescription charges. Drug costs for conditions that can be prevented and avoided in many cases rose considerably such as type 2 diabetes.
"Making better lifestyle choices like increasing physical activity and crucially, reducing consumption of energy-dense drinks and foods, can reduce, delay, avoid or prevent the need for prescribed drugs.
“Making healthier choices allows us to live longer and better lives. It will reduce costs to the individual and to the taxpayer.”
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