News summary

Community pharmacy fraud checks more widespread than first expected

Checks on community pharmacies by anonymous staff from the counter-fraud directorate of the Department of Health have been more substantial than first thought.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s July meeting heard that three in every 10 pharmacies in England have been visited to find out whether checks on patients’ prescription charge exemption claims are being carried out properly. Prescriptions used for these checks are also being used to confirm correct dispensing. Further, because the forms can be recovered from the Prescription Pricing Authority after submission for pricing, they can be used to confirm correct endorsing. There is also a possibility that a permanent unit to carry out these checks may be established.

See also Pharmacists form largest fraud group

Other matters considered at the PSNC’s July meeting are reported below.

No remuneration offer for 2001–02 has been received from the Department of Health. The next PSNC meeting at which any offer can be considered is in September. Wally Dove, PSNC chairman said: “We’re keen to engage the Department in detailed discussions on the new contract and there was mutual thinking that we would get remuneration out of the way first.”

The chief executives of the PSNC (Sue Sharpe) and the National Pharmaceutical Association (John D’Arcy), together with a Company Chemists Association representative are to meet the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s professional standards directorate to clarify the implications of the Society’s new Code of Ethics for professional supervision and the skill-mix used in community pharmacy. Mr Dove said that the real solution to the issue of pharmacy workload and cognitive services lay in having more pharmacists, not in delegating work to technicians. “The Royal College of Nursing and the General Practitioners’ Committee don’t talk about passing work onto others, they want more nurses and doctors. The chief pharmacist needs to consider this along with the skill-mix. The profession could be much stronger if we had some thousands more pharmacists active on the register.”

GlaxoSmithKline never considered ending its agency scheme, contrary to indications it gave the National Pharmaceutical Association, the committee concluded following a presentation by the company. All it was trying to do was to work out how to fit former SmithklineBeecham products into the scheme and to set and deliver discounts. The PSNC believes that there is a real possibility that GSK will distribute products direct to pharmacies if wholesalers do not accept a cut in their fee for handling products from 4 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

Discussions on the reconfiguration of local pharmaceutical committees are to wait until details of the reform of the National Health Service into 30 strategic health authorities are clearer. Mrs Sharpe said that she envisaged LPCs at the strategic level, but it was not clear how to organise local contractor representation with primary care groups and trusts.

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