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Letters to the Editor
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Emergency supplies
Why should we provide services for free?
From Mr D. A. Patel, MRPharmS
I am sure there are numerous community pharmacists who have made emergency
supplies of prescription only medicines to their patients. I wonder if
any one has thought about being paid for such a service and how they
went about it. Or have they thought better of it but provided the medicines
free of charge and deducted the quantity when the required prescription
was later produced, if at all. Is it because of competition down the
road or fear of upsetting a “loyal” patient, or is it too
much trouble to enforce an equitable charging scale and procedure?
It was a sad day when emergency supply was enabled without a suitable
universal reimbursement requirement. What is incredible is why community
pharmacists are not authorised to claim for such supplies from the relevant
authorities. They could, for example, send one copy to such authorities,
one to the patient’s doctor for record and keep a third copy for
themselves. Or is this yet one more continuing free service?
Davesh Patel
Croydon, Surrey
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STEPHEN LUTENER, head of regulation, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee, replies:
As part of the PSNC’s work on the improvement
of chemists’ terms of service, focus groups with a diverse range
of contractors were organised to discuss areas where pharmaceutical
services are hindered by the current regulations. The vast majority
highlighted
the current emergency supply provisions as being out of date, and in
need of major reform.
In March, the PSNC approached the Department of Health, the Medicines
and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society to seek amendments
of the relevant legislation. Two of the improvements sought were to permit
the supply of a complete month’s supply, where appropriate (and
with suitable safeguards), rather than being limited to a five-day maximum,
and to introduce
arrangements for funding emergency supplies through the NHS. We expected the
current increase in requests for emergency supplies due to the reduction in
GP surgeries opening on Saturdays, and there is the potential for a
further increase
in requests depending on the final roll out model for electronic transfer of
prescriptions.
The Society has agreed to consider our request at the November meeting of
its Law and Ethics Committee, and we would welcome the Society’s support
for our proposals. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal