The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7073 p842
November 27, 1999 News

Category D stock threshold cut

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the Department of Health have agreed that the stock threshold at which medicines move into Drug Tariff Category D should be cut from four weeks' supply to two weeks'. The aim is to reduce the number of products in Category D, so keeping National Health Service costs down by not allowing pharmacy contractors to substitute costly brands for cheaper generics. Speaking at a press briefing on November 22 following the PSNC's November meeting, Mr Wally Dove (chairman, PSNC) said that the Minister of State for Health (Mr John Denham) had been unfair when he had told the House of Commons Health Select Committee on November 4 that the PSNC had been dragging its feet over this change. "We had already agreed to the revised procedure. It was awaiting ratification at our next meeting," Mr Dove said. He added that the change was not expected to reduce the movement of products into Category D, but that it should speed their exit. He said that the PSNC would co-operate with investigations into generic medicines and their prices, which were announced at the select committee meeting and which will be conducted by the Office of Fair Trading.

Stock threshold is cut to two weeks' supply to ease Category D problems

Commenting on the committee hearing itself, Mr Dove said that several Parliamentarians had been very focused on the Category D issue. This had been wrong, he believed, as it was merely a symptom drawing attention to general price increases for generics.
Other matters considered at the PSNC's November meeting are reported below.

Prescription switching The National Health Service Executive was not co-operating over the issue of transferring prescriptions from contractors charge-exempt to non-charge-exempt bundles. This was costing contractors £8m a year, Mr Dove said. He expected that contractors would eventually be told about prescriptions that had been switched, but said that the NHS Executive was adamant that forms would not be returned to contractors so that they could amend them. It had said that this was because of a requirement to minimise possible fraud. Mr Dove said: "In my view, they have made a decision to hold on to as much of our money as possible." He advised contractors to tighten their checking procedures before they sent prescriptions for pricing. The PSNC was taking legal advice on the matter.
Y2K "Whatever the Y2K pharmaceutical alliance has done to stop general medical practitioners extending prescribing periods over the millennium, we do not think it has done enough and that it has left it too late," Mr Dove said. Local pharmaceutical committees should discuss the matter with their health authorities. "We have got to push this or the category D problem will be multiplied by a factor of 10," Mr Dove added. "Contractors and the NHS Executive will be in the front line for blame. GPs will be under pressure from patients. They need to be strong and to stick to business as usual."
Technicians The PSNC opposed registration of pharmacy technicians by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, although it supported training. Pharmacists were legally responsible for dispensing and had a duty to ensure staff were sufficiently trained. Further controls were unnecessary.
Wales A full-time secretary, to be based at Cardiff, would be sought for the Welsh Central Pharmaceutical Committee. The WCPC constitution would be checked to ensure that the committee could be the body recognised by the National Assembly for Wales as representing the interest of pharmacy contractors in the principality.
PCTs As things stood, primary care trusts would be able to apply for pharmacy contracts. Other health service bodies were prohibited from holding contracts by Ministerial directions. Representations had already been made to Ministers seeking extension of the directions to PCTs.