PATIENTS’ medication could be cut back as health chiefs desperately try to cut costs.

Up to 100 GP practices in south Essex may find their drug spending slashed next year after they overspent by nearly £2million in 2010/11.

The county’s primary care trusts, which face pressure from the Government to reduce spending, have reacted by vowing to clamp down on “unnecessary” spending.

Among those most in danger of being told to rein in prescriptions are Shoebury Health Centre in Campfield Road, Shoebury, the surgery in Queensway, Southend, and the Basildon Community Drug and Alcohol Service in High Road, Pitsea.

Simon Williams, associate director of community pharmacy and medicine management for NHS South East and South West Essex, said: “We regularly analyse prescribing patterns to detect overspending.”

At the start of every financial year, doctors’ surgeries are given a cash pot to spend on drugs. Health chiefs say those budgets can be adjusted if a practice takes on patients who frequently require expensive drugs, or if another surgery closes and the number of people on its register increases drastically as a result.

However, they have also vowed to turn a critical eye on surgeries which consistently overspend.

The Government wants the NHS to cut £4billion from its annual budget of more than £100billion over the next nine months. About one in every five pounds in the health service is spent on drugs.

In Southend, Castle Point and Rochford district, 32 surgeries are in line for extra scrutiny after breaching their budgets both last year and this year. In Basildon, Billericay, Brentwood and Thurrock, 25 practices racked up debts in consecutive years.