The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has warned the Department of Health that there will be future problems over supplies of medicines to patients if it does not come up with a proper scheme to replace Drug Tariff Category D.
"If a proper solution to the problem is not found we can see Ministers' mailbags being substantially added to by irate patients who are unable to get medicines when they want them," Mr Wally Dove (chairman, PSNC) told The Journal on May 2.
Speaking after a meeting with Department officials at which they had offered no replacement system that would guarantee the availability of medicines to patients if there were future shortages of generic medicines, Mr Dove said that there had to be a mechanism that allowed pharmacists to supply branded products at no loss to themselves if generics were not available.
All the Department had been able to offer at the meeting were four criteria that any replacement system would have to meet.
They were: (1) reimbursement should not exceed the generic price except where there was a genuine requirement to meet patient need; (2) the system must not lead to artificial price rises; (3) no one should be allowed to profiteer at the NHS's expense; and (4) there must be no incentive to engineer supply chain disruption.
Mr Dove said that the Department was unable to say what would happen if pharmacists could only supply branded products due to the non-availability of generics but refused to do so because the NHS would not pay the higher price.He said that he did not believe the Department had any plans to alter the terms of service that required pharmacists to supply medicines promptly.