UK GMC proposes costs can be considered when prescribing off-label

For the first time, the UK’s General Medical Council GMC is proposing that doctors can prescribe a cheaper off-label alternative to a licensed medicine, as long as it is approved in authoritative clinical guidelines and is just as safe and effective for the patient.

The GMC’s Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices puts forward new standards designed to make prescribing safer for patients and support doctors in managing medicines. Patients buying prescriptions on-line would receive greater protection under the guidance, which would require doctors prescribing via web sites to liaise with the patient’s general practitioners, unless the patient objects.

Doctors are also being asked to raise and to respond constructively to concerns raised by colleagues and patients about adverse incidents and near-misses involving the use of medicines and medical devices.