Four London NHS boards have been revealed as spending the least amount on prescriptions for patients in the entire country.

The board found to be spending the least claimed factors such as individuals turning to private healthcare and the capital’s younger population had affected prescription spending.

The data, provided by NHSDiscountOffers, compared NHS data on prescription costs with the population of each integrated care board (ICB).

Figures were obtained from cost analysis data in England during the 2022/23 financial year.

The South East London ICB topped the list, spending £216.4 million in total for 24.4m items across a population of just over 2m.

This equated to £106 being spent by the ICB on prescriptions per person.

North Central London was placed second on the list with a £107 cost per person, and South West London came in third with £108.

The North East London board followed, spending £113 on prescriptions per patient.

Figures for London boards were found to be significantly lower than the national average, with £164.6 being spent for prescriptions per person in England as a whole.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough board was found to spend the most money on prescriptions, at an average spend of £332 per person.

An NHS South East London ICB spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Scope of prescribing costs varies by ICB e.g. highest cost ICB figures are significantly distorted by the provision of specialist stoma care. The data therefore is complex and requires detailed interpretation. Expenditure on medicines is influenced by a number of factors, which can be simplified into three groups: the volume of products provided, the price of those products and the combination of products used.”

They claimed that the factors affecting medicine expenditure can vary by area depending on how medication is deployed, patient need and the organisation of services.

The spokesperson claimed unique traits of London’s population, such as individuals turning to private healthcare subsidised by their workplace and the relatively low numbers of older people, had affected the prescribing spend.

Regarding the South East London ICB specifically, the spokesperson said 85 per cent of prescription items over the 2022/23 financial year were generic drugs, which they claimed were cheaper than identical brand-name products.

This percentage of generic prescribing for the South East London board was said to be above the national average for the same time period.

The board has also reportedly promoted methods to reduce waste and improve medicine delivery through public awareness campaigns and encouraging patients to keep useful medicines at home.

This was said to reduce the number of appointments and prescription requests from GPs.

The spokesperson said: “South East London has further developed measures to influence prescriber behaviour in favour of cost-effective and clinical-effective products, which allows medication optimisation and population management with early prevention in line with NICE guidelines to achieve maximum clinical outcomes while reducing pill burden to patients.

"We also have initiatives in place to reduce the overuse of medicines and overprescribing.”

They added: “The impact of the above work contributes to our spend, noting data shows that South East London spends the least on items which should not routinely be prescribed in primary care and over-the-counter medicines, but relatively more on prescription per item at £9.25 compared to England’s average of £8.30.”