New figures show that over a 12-month period (2018/19) about £500,000 has been saved by people in Hertfordshire who have bought medicines from a pharmacy or supermarket instead of getting a prescription from their GP.
GPs have been limiting the prescribing of medicines that can be bought without a prescription directly from a pharmacy or supermarket, following a public consultation in 2017.
Doctor Prag Moodley, a Stevenage GP and chairman of the East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which plans and pays for healthcare in our region, said: "I'd like to thank people for helping to save the NHS around £500,000 in Hertfordshire so far.
"Because the NHS pays for the over-the-counter medication, the cost of a GP consultation and the cost of dispensing the medicine, it costs the NHS much more than it would cost someone to buy it from a pharmacy."
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