The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7177 p804-809
8 December 2001

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PSNC threatens judicial review of 2001–02 remuneration imposition

A judicial review of the Government’s decision to impose a remuneration settlement for 2001-02 will be sought by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee if the imposition is not reconsidered.

The PSNC believes that there is a fatal flaw in the reasoning given for the imposition by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, Hazel Blears.

Ms Blears said at a dinner hosted by the National Pharmaceutical Association last week that she was restricted by the rules of the global sum system (PJ, 1 December, p767).

The PSNC says that Ms Blears gave a similar explanation of being "bound by the rules of the global sum system" at a meeting on 13 November. The PSNC view is that there are no binding rules which require the Minister to recover an overpayment.

The global sum system, which was introduced in 1990–91, is not specified in legislation, and does not therefore bind ministers, the PSNC says. It believes that the Minister has wrongly fettered her discretion in taking the view that she was bound to comply with the rules of the system.

PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said: "The Minister has taken several opportunities to express her sympathy for the impact on contractors of retrieving the overpayments made last year and this."

"In the letter she wrote to contractors, she made express reference to the ‘need’ to recover the overpayments, and she has expressed her recognition of the adverse impact this has. We hope that she will recognise that the disastrous decision she made was reached on a false understanding of her position, and that we can expect a revised decision that sets a reasonable fee."

The imposition means that the dispensing fee has been cut from 97.5p to 87.4p until April 2002. It will then rise again to around 94p. The cut has been imposed in order to recover a £8.1m overpayment which has accrued to contractors over the past 18 months as a result of prescription numbers increasing by far more than predicted, largely due to Government inspired changes to health care.

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