Adverse drug reactions are costing the NHS a fortune in hospital admissions, a study of the pharmaceutical industry has found.

The NHS wastes £1.9 billion on such admissions - money that could pay for 10,000 new midwives or cover the estimated cost of MRSA infections, according to a report by the think-tank Compass (www.compassonline.org.uk).

It argues that these shock figures, combined with the creeping cost of the NHS drug bill, should prompt debate about the safety, cost and effectiveness of drugs we take, as well as raising questions about the drugs industry and to whom it should be answerable.

Money frittered on hospital admissions could be further cut by bringing a community nursing and physiotherapy teams into residential care homes for older people, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (www.jrf.org.uk).

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Research by the University of the West of England, Bristol, and the University of Warwick at a group of homes caring for 131 long-term residents found that savings made through reduced hospital admissions and delayed transfer to nursing homes offset any potential cost of the scheme.

Professor Ala Szczepura, of Warwick Univeristy, reported: “During the two-year study, between 80 and nearly 200 potential hospital admissions were averted, and 20 early discharges made possible.”

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