Mr. Tony O'Brien:

Sorry, but I was distracted by the question on patches. The medicines management programme is systematically examining each area, by volume and cost, where there appears to be evidence of overprescribing. It is working on an educative basis with prescribers and putting in place new processes, such as with patches, to create appropriate controls. In the phenomenon known as "polypharmacy", it is very easy to have drugs added to a formula but not so easy to have them removed and the medicines management programme is an active targeted campaign, particularly in the area of repeat prescribing, which is systematically addressing the issue. There have been a number of initiatives in the past and this is part of a rolling programme to limit overprescribing.