The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7216 p386
21 September 2002

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Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council (www.spgc.org.uk)

Scottish contractors voice anger at prescription payment miscalculations

Community pharmacy contractors in Scotland have voiced anger and disapproval at the way they are reimbursed for National Health Service prescriptions by the Practitioner Services Division (PSD) of the Scottish Executive Health Department.

At a series of regional meetings organised by the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council, contractors complained that the PSD had made a constant stream of mistakes over prescription payments. In addition, they said that there was a complete lack of transparency as to how the PSD rectified any incorrect payments.

SPGC chairman Frank Owens, who chaired the meetings, acknowledged that mistakes had been rectified by the PSD but said: "The message from contractors was loud and clear — confidence in the prescription pricing system is at rock bottom. One problem after another has eroded faith in the PSD system." Over a quarter of all Scottish contractors attended the "Costing the contract" meetings held during August and September. The meetings were primarily aimed at explaining the community pharmacy remuneration settlement agreed for the year ahead, but also encouraged contractors to raise any other problems they had experienced. Mr Owens added that the PSD would now have to work hard to rebuild contractors' confidence in the lead up to the new community pharmacy contract. "The prescription pricing system has to be robust enough to address the issues which will arise when we move to a new contract in 2004," he said.

In a statement, the PSD said it was aware of contractors concerns about the new pricing system, but that it would continue to work closely with the SPGC to address these. It said it had developed a more complete analysis of items falling under the heading of "adjustments", which it hopes will go a long way to improving the transparency of payments. In addition, it says audit data for May 2002 show the accuracy of payments made for dispensed items was 98.5 per cent against an agreed target with SPGC of 98 per cent.

Formal discussions on the new contract between the SPGC and the SEHD are expected to start this autumn. Meanwhile, the Scottish Executive announced an extra £570m for NHS buildings and information technology and Mr Owens was optimistic that community pharmacy would benefit from the new investment

The SPGC is keen to get feedback on contractors' experiences of the PSD, even if cases have been resolved satisfactorily. It can be reached on 0131 467 7766.