Pilot schemes for the supply of pharmacy and general sale list medicines to patients by community pharmacists free on the National Health Service are expected to start in Scotland this year.
In a Scottish Parliamentary written reply on April 28, the Scottish Health Minister (Ms Susan Deacon) told Mr David Davidson (Con, North East Scotland) that a project board had been formed to take forward the planning for this initiative, which she had announced at a national symposium "Pharmacy and the NHS in Scotland" last year (PJ, November 13, 1999, p770).
She told Mr Davidson: "Our intention is to have pilot schemes up and running by the end of this year, which will allow community pharmacists to supply to specific patients, direct and free of charge, certain pharmacy and general sale list medicines which would otherwise have been obtained on prescription from a general medical practitioner."