Published: Less than 10 min ago
Signs indicate deficiencies in the management and control of drug prescribing. The National Audit Office therefore begins an examination of the work of the government and the responsible authorities.
Every year, close to seven million people in Sweden pick up at least one medicine on prescription. The state’s costs for subsidizing pharmaceuticals are roughly SEK 31 billion a year – a cost that is estimated to have increased to over SEK 36 billion by 2025.
“That the right medicine is prescribed to the right person in the right dose is crucial for patient safety and for the pharmaceutical subsidies to be used in the right way,” says Auditor General Helena Lindberg in a press release.
The National Audit Office begins the review after indications that the state and the regions have difficulty in directing and controlling the prescription of medicines.
The difficulties are judged to be due, among other things, to the number of actors, that the exchange of information between authorities is limited and that the regions cannot check whether the patient lives in a different region than where the doctor is active.
According to the Inspectorate for Care and Care (Ivo), almost four out of five supervisory cases involving registered healthcare personnel are about doctors who have prescribed narcotic drugs.