Experts are urging the NHS to stop prescribing pills that do more harm than good

The Beyond Pills campaign is created by the College of Medicine and Integrated Health and has the support of senior politicians. Doctors are calling for more “social prescription” than exercise

Millions of medicines that do more harm than good must stop being prescribed by the NHS, experts have warned.

Doctors are calling for more “social prescription” like exercise and group classes for patients left on a cocktail of daily pills.

NHS spending on mental health medicines such as antidepressants has increased by two-thirds in the last three years.

The Beyond Pills campaign is created by the College of Medicine and Integrated Health and supported by senior Labor and Tory politicians.

It states that GP prescriptions have doubled from 10 items per capita per year in 1996 to 20 in 2016.

dr Michael Dixon, Chair of the College of Medicine, said: “Medicine as we know it is no longer affordable or sustainable.

“Nor is it able to stem the rise in obesity, mental health problems and most long-term illnesses. It needs a new medical mindset.”

The campaign was launched in the wake of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s National Overprescribing Review released in September.

It has been found that 10% of the medicines prescribed – 110 million items – packs are unnecessary and can cause harm.

Adverse drug reactions now account for up to a fifth of all inpatient hospital admissions.

At least 15% of the population – or 8.4 million people – take more than five different drugs every day, often using one drug to treat the side effects of another.

Former Tory Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell said: “Policymakers tend to seek medical explanations and solutions to problems that have non-medical causes and also underestimate the evidence supporting a broader view of the factors at play affect health outcomes. This tendency to narrowly interpret healthcare is deeply flawed on several levels.”

Heidi Alexander, Shadow Health Secretary from 2015 to 2016, said: “After watching my grandmother’s last years revolve around her pill box and knowing that her repeated late-night calls to emergency services was about acute loneliness as much as she was around each specific medical treatment. As a result, I feel it is imperative that we find more effective and efficient ways to provide ‘health care’.”

A separate report published today in the British Medical Journal says that menopause is a ‘natural occurrence’ and that HRT may ‘not help’ some women.