The Prescription Pricing Authority has warned that it expects increasing problems with pricing prescriptions on time and cannot say when a solution will be found.
In the PPA annual report for 1998-99, the authority's chief executive (Mr Nick Scholte) says that problems caused by increasing numbers of Category D items towards the end of the financial year show no signs of diminishing.
"We are now forecasting serious delays to the processing of prescriptions and to the provision of prescribing reports in the second half of next year," Mr Scholte says. "While we are doing all we can to minimise the problems this scenario creates for our stakeholders, the fact remains that we are unable to predict with any accuracy the profile of products that may be included in Category D in future months and we are, therefore, unable to forecast when we might be able to recover lost ground."
On prescription numbers, the report reveals that 530.88m prescriptions were passed for payment in England in 1998-99. Of these, 480.96m were dispensed by pharmacy and appliance contractors at an average total cost of £9.713. Dispensing doctors dispensed 35.99m prescriptions at an average cost of £11.018 and a further 11.18m items were "personally administered" by doctors at an average cost of £12.961.
Annual report 1998-99, Prescription Pricing Authority, Bridge House, 152 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6SN (tel 0191 232 5371).