The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7207 p97-101
20 July 2002

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  Drug names
  ADR reporting
  Evidence-based medicine
  Confidentiality
  Diabetes
  Remuneration
  Science in pharmacy
  Diarrhoea
  The Society

Letters to the Editor

Remuneration

Fees contrast

From Dr A. J. Smith, FRPharmS

I read with interest in the July edition of Medeconomics that dispensing doctors have received a 4.71 per cent increase in dispensing fees as recommended by their review body. Because the increase is payable from 1 May instead of 1 April, the actual increase is in excess of 4.71 per cent. This increase is in marked contrast to the overall decrease in dispensing fees inflicted upon community pharmacists since autumn 1999. Then it was 101.5p; now it is 94.6p.

The maximum fee for prescriptions payable to dispensing doctors has risen from 117.2p to 124.9p per prescription. The minimum fee has risen from 89.2p to 92.1p per prescription and, in addition, dispensing doctors are still paid a mark up on prescription costs. To exacerbate the situation, the discount deduction scale ranges from 3.17 per cent to 11.18 per cent in contrast to the pharmacists' clawback which ranges from 6.51 per cent to 31.1 per cent.

Alan J. Smith

Waterperry, Oxfordshire

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