The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7203 p861-867
22 June 2002

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Welsh repeat dispensing on hold?

Plans for legislation to allow pharmacists in Wales to manage National Health Service repeat dispensing are likely to be put on hold.

The Welsh Assembly's Health and Social Services Committee met on 19 June, as The Journal went to press, and included in its deliberations a recommendation that plans to allow pharmacists to manage repeat prescriptions should be removed from the legislative timetable.

A repeat dispensing pilot study is expected to start in the near future to examine its financial and practical implications. Legislative changes will then be necessary before any scheme can be rolled out across the principality.

The committee was told: "The projected date for legislation to be made is subject to the findings of this study and subsequent consultation. In view of the protracted timetable for potential rollout across Wales, it is recommended that this item be removed from the legislative timetable and be resubmitted at a later date."

Pilots of repeat dispensing within community pharmacies are already under way in Scotland (PJ, 23 February, p238).