The cost of prescribed medicines in Northern Ireland is exceeding £800 million a year and creating a “huge burden” on health services, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has said.
Professor Cathy Harrison said people in Northern Ireland use more of almost every type of medicine than other parts of the UK, including antibiotics and painkillers.
The average number of prescriptions a year in the region is 21 for every person with more than 43 million prescriptions issued.
