The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7333 p73
22 January 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Scotland’s pharmacists asked to watch where they stamp

Community pharmacists in Scotland are being advised by the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council to ensure that the pharmacy stamp does not obscure the CHI (community health index) number on prescription forms.

The reason for this is that the CHI number, which is the unique patient identification number, contains a patient’s date of birth and is now being used to determine eligibility for age-related prescription charge exemption. Also, CHI numbers will become increasingly important as IT to support the new contract develops. This is because CHI numbers can be used by any health professional and are likely to be used for identification purposes in new NHS IT systems.