From Mr W. B. Hannon, MRPharmS
SIR,-This Government has pledged to reduce the late payments by large companies to small businesses. What's sauce for the goose . . .
I suggest that the National Pharmaceutical Association seeks volunteers in each area served by a pricing bureau. It should ask the volunteers to programme their computers to price all National Health Service prescriptions as they are dispensed, send the daily totals via the modem to St Albans, who would then pass the weekly totals to the pricing bureau with a demand for payment. Any non-payments or late payments to be charged as an unauthorised loan at 27 per cent interest per month, or part thereof. (Bankers do this all the time.) If the payment is not met, a court order would be obtained and bailiffs employed to seize all the assets, such as computers, desk, telephones, etc, and offer the Treasury token payment of £10 to take over the loss-making department. The employees could be taken on by the NPA to run the "privatised department" as per air traffic control. They could be paid overtime to get rid of the backlog of unpriced prescriptions and given incentive bonuses to cut down on red tape. I am convinced the NPA could run the bureau more efficiently than the Civil Service and be more amenable to pharmacy representation.
W. B. Hannon
Kendal, Cumbria