The Welsh prescription pricing office has started pricing prescriptions on a sample basis as well as in full as a way of dealing with a backlog which is expected to reach a year by February, 2001, if nothing is done (PJ, April 15, p570).
Sample pricing has started even though there has been no agreement between the Welsh Assembly and the Welsh Central Pharmaceutical Committee that it should be introduced. Pharmacies are currently being paid on the basis of estimates of the amounts due to them for each month's dispensing, with balancing payments or deductions being made once that month's prescriptions have been fully priced.
Mr Philip Parry (chairman, WCPC) told The Journal on May 15: "We are still waiting for a proposal from the Welsh Assembly."
The fact that sample pricing was being carried out was revealed in papers tabled to be considered by the Assembly on May 17.
The papers said: "The backlog of prescriptions from October ,1999, is now being priced on a sample basis. This is without prejudice to continuing dialogue with the Welsh Central Pharmaceutical Committee with the aim of reaching agreement on a fair and affordable methodology for payments based on sampling. Data from the sampling exercise are now starting to become available, and are being used to produce a range of costed options. In the meantime Health Solutions Wales together with Bro Taf health authority is looking at operational solutions to improve the organisation's productivity and throughput."