Doctors prescribe too many drugs because they are scared of been sued if they advise patients to stop taking them

Professor Simon Maxwell, from the University of Edinburgh, said Britain has reached a ‘tipping point’ where many elderly people are taking five or more drugs – when they often do not need to.

He insisted that life-saving drugs are only a ‘minuscule’ proportion of the vast array of expensive tablets being prescribed, which often carry the risk of side-effects.

And he warned of the ‘subtle’ psychological impact that taking a large array of medicines for years on end can have on elderly patients.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Professor Maxwell explained: ‘It’s easy to think drugs are being given for serious conditions, for an infection that might kill you.

‘But that accounts for a minuscule proportion of prescriptions written. Many prescriptions are produced to reduce the risk of something happening in the future or only give a short-term benefit.’

He said that GPs needed to review their patients’ medications more often, and carry out controlled trials to see what happens when certain drugs are withdrawn.

But he revealed that many medics are reluctant to take patients off their pills in case they are found ‘culpable’.

He added: ‘All members of the medical profession want to do their best for patients and we don’t want to get sued.’ 

Professor Maxwell went on to say: ‘We are at a tipping point, we’ve got so many people on so many medicines, a billion prescriptions in England and Wales each year.

‘The average GP writes 45,000 prescriptions each year. That is a lot of medicines being prescribed by any standards.’ 

One patient he discussed was an 83-year-old woman called Mabel who had been told to take an astonishing 18 different drugs.

And he explained that certain drugs – for example statins – were prescribed to prevent future illnesses, and tended to have only a marginal benefit for the patient. 

But once a patient is prescribed a medicine, he said it is ‘like a train that does not stop’.

Professor Maxwell went on to say: ‘If I get to 95 I don’t want a statin anywhere near me. Are we overmedicated? 

For some patients, yes...there are some patients on more medicines than they clearly wish to be.’

While many patients will feel unqualified to assess the risks of stopping their medicines, Professor Maxwell said he was hopeful that a new generation of patients who are ‘internet savvy’ might be better informed. He also called for more ‘patient advocates’ who could help patients make decisions about their drugs.

Yesterday Dr Angela Coulter, a senior research scientist from the University of Oxford, said: ‘In general in this country there is too much prescribing. 

Are we always well advised by our doctors? Not always.’ She added: ‘One in five people now take five medicines a day. It’s quite easy to start taking pills but stopping is more tricky.’