The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7179 p873-877
22-29 December 2001

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News summary

England and Scotland clear script backlogs

Backlogs of prescriptions waiting to be priced, which built up as a result of the problems with generic medicines in 1999, have been cleared in England and Scotland; however, Wales is still six months behind.

In England, the Prescription Pricing Authority said that it finished processing August prescriptions on 11 October, finally clearing a backlog which at its peak amounted to three months, in the region of 150 million unprocessed prescriptions. September prescriptions were completed on schedule on 30 October.

The practitioner services (pharmacy) division of the Scottish Common Services Agency said that it cleared its backlog on 29 November, reaching a target agreed with the Scottish Parliament. It is now pricing prescriptions as normal.

Prescriptions in Wales are priced by Health Solutions Wales. A spokesman for the National Assembly for Wales said: "Health Solutions Wales is currently running approximately six months late but it is working up a recovery plan and we expect it to be fully up to date by the summer of next year."

The situation in Wales was exacerbated by the fact that the predecessor to Health Solutions Wales occupied offices now used by the National Assembly and had to move just as the generics problem was reaching its height.

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