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‘Overprescribing must stop…’,‘Ministers call for crackdown…’, ran the headlines in late September, reporting the publication of the National Overprescribing Review. 1–3 Behind these over-simplifications lies a thorough and considered report aiming to stimulate long-term change across the health system to address this major problem. 3 Commissioned in 2018 by the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and led by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, it describes a ‘once in a generation opportunity to reset prescribing in a new, patient-centred way’. Developed via a wide consultation process involving ‘hundreds of patients, clinicians and experts’, it draws together much work of the last two decades on medicines optimisation. 3

Overprescribing is defined broadly here as the prescription of medication that the patient does not want or need, or where medication harms exceed benefits. 3 The …