The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7341 p324
19 March 2005

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Bulk fee dropped in Tariff changes

The bulk prescription fee has been removed from Part IIIA of the April 2005 Drug Tariff, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee announced last week.

From 1 April, contractors will receive the standard dispensing fee and a container allowance for each item dispensed on a bulk prescription.

Some of the endorsement codes for claiming additional fees will also be standardised in the new tariff.

The requirement to endorse “CD” on prescriptions in Schedules 2 or 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1985 has also been removed. “ED” should be used in future to claim payment for all extemporaneous dispensing fees and “MF” should be used for elastic hosiery and trusses requiring “measured and fitted” endorsement.

A number of other fees have also been removed from the Drug Tariff, alongside the loss of the urgent dispensing fee announced at the PSNC’s local pharmaceutical committees’ conference (PJ, 5 March 2005, p261). These include the extemporaneously dispensed fee for unit dosage forms and special formula powders, the aseptically dispensed fee and the extemporaneously sterilised fee, as well as the fees for repairs to trusses and for replacement and spare parts for stoma appliances, suprapubic belts and incontinence appliances.

Commenting on the changes, Andrew McCoig, a community pharmacist from Croydon, said: “The urgent fee and the bulk prescription fee are the changes most likely to affect contractors. The other changes will, however, affect a few contractors who really rely on them to supplement their business. But the change to the urgent fee is the most contentious — some people will not be happy with that.”

He added: “And although the bulk prescription fee does not affect a huge number of contractors, those it does affect will be hit hard.”

The PSNC said that the changes will be cost-neutral with funding from abolished fees being redistributed to remaining fees, adding that the fees being removed are rarely claimed.

Guidance on all of the changes will be sent directly to pharmacy contractors later this month. Queries about the changes can be directed to the National Prescription Research Centre on 020 8441 7427.