The Nelson general practice prescribing project. Part I: A pilot audit of the regional prescribing profile.

The Nelson general practice prescribing project has been set up to develop a model for cost effective prescribing in general practice. A pilot audit of regional prescribing patterns and trends for February 1989 was conducted to test data acquisition and presentation for the project, based on 12,690 scripts. There was marked variation in medicines choice, cost and number of scripts between general practitioners. The cost of prescriptions ranged from $2.20 to $127.70, median $10.77. Cardiovascular medicines were most frequently prescribed and most costly. Extemporaneous prescribing accounted for 20% of the February inventory and was highly individually variable. Benzodiazepine prescribing was not in line with current guidelines and was high, mean 6.7% of all prescribing, indicating an urgent need for unbiased drug information. Audited prescription data allows definitions of educational and pricing strategies.