BMJ  2006;332:1513 (24 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7556.1513

Letter

Switching statins

How to do it without tears and to benefit the NHS

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Moon and Bogle discuss how switching to generic simvastatin could save money for the NHS in England.¹ The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) was established in 2002 to advise the minister of health of the Wales Assembly on promoting safe and cost effective prescribing. The group considers that the promotion of generic simvastatin as the most cost effective statin of choice will greatly benefit NHS Wales. This is based on robust evidence.

General practitioners in Wales are advised that generic simvastatin should be the most cost effective statin of choice for new patients receiving statin treatment. Switching was not actively promoted as such. To help local health boards to balance their budgets, a subgroup of the AWMSG was tasked to develop the all Wales prescribing incentive scheme.

The Newport board has included generic simvastatin as an indicator in its prescribing incentive scheme in the past three years. . . . [Full text of this article]

Lliswerry Medical Centre, Newport, Gwent NP20 5EB lmclau@hotmail.com

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