Doctors are handing out prescriptions for toothpaste, bodywash and shampoo made by consumer giants such as Colgate and Neutrogena at a rate of nearly one a minute, costing the NHS £3.4m last year.

The number of prescriptions for toiletries that most people buy for themselves has soared by nearly 600% in a decade, from 79,000 in 2007 to about 471,000 last year in England.

Doctors prescribed more than 50,000 bottles of Neutrogena shampoo

Costs have leapt sevenfold over the same period, rising from £483,000 10 years ago to £3.4m in 2017, according to official NHS figures.

The growth was described last night as “extraordinary” by Norman Lamb, a former health minister and the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk.

For example, the NHS spent more than £1.6m on nearly 200,000 bottles of Aveeno bodywash