Cost of living: GPs warning over rise in prescription requests

The cost of living crisis is adding to pressures on GPs, the British Medical Association (BMA) in Northern Ireland has warned.

The BMA said that is because the number of people asking for prescriptions for medicines that can be bought over the counter is increasing.

That includes medicines like painkillers and allergy medication, Dr Alan Stout of the BMA said.

Prescriptions are free for everyone in Northern Ireland.

The rise in prescription request increases "the cost to the health service as a whole and the pressure on GPs", Dr Stout told Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"We have talked before about the difficulties people have accessing GPs and this is just more demand and difficulties," he said.

Dr Stout added: "I absolutely don't hold that against anyone, it is not our position as GPs to deny people medication or deny people prescriptions if they need this medication."

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Source: BBC News, 23 June 2022