alt Hacker NewsA year of over the counter Vitamin D is around 30 pounds. (Not including bulk discounts or administrative/distribution costs)
The population is 70 million.
So 2.1 billion pounds, about 1% of the total NHS budget.
So do Vitamin D supplements reduce healthcare costs by at least 1%
Replies
leptons • today at 12:34 AM
1% if the NHS budget is one thing, and 1% of healthcare costs is quite another. They are orders of magnitude different.
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I get mine (2000IU & K2) from Amazon where 400 tablets are between £8 and £10.
That is before any bulk discounts are considered.
VitD as a preventative would probably be distributed through the GP system rather than the hospital system, and so be procured locally and subject to the Drug Tariff system.
I think it would be great for this to be procured centrally for great discounts and dispensed locally exempt from our tariff guides and prescription charges. After all, the NHS has great clout as it employs 1.5M people and we spend > £300B on healthcare. But the NHS changes very slowly, mostly because it’s the ultimate political football and suggesting any change means the usual suspects screaming that you’re trying to destroy it. We’ll get to preventative medicine when we’ve tried everything else.