6. Making effective use of resources
 

In providing care you must:
• pay due regard to efficacy and the use of resources;
• prescribe only the treatment, drugs, or appliances that serve the
patient’s needs.
You should seek to give priority to the investigation and treatment of patients
on the basis of need
GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraphs 3.6, 3.7, 37

There is a tension between the needs of a GP’s individual patients and the
needs of the population as a whole. The NHS cannot provide all treatments
from which patients might benefit, and the needs of individual patients have to
be balanced against those of society. Good GPs are aware of this tension
and seek to balance the needs of their patients and of society.
Wasting resources means that there is less available for your patients and
those of other doctors. So you should use resources in a cost-effective way.
In both NHS and private care,

The excellent GP
- only prescribes treatments which make an effective contribution to the patient's overall management
- takes cost into account when choosing between treatments of similar effectiveness

The unacceptable GP
- consistently prescribes unnecessary or ineffective treatments
- takes no note of cost when choosing between similar treatments
- refuses to register patients whose treatment may be costly