Community pharmacies to take on prescription charge refunds from post offices
Community pharmacies will take on the processing of prescription charge refunds from 1 April, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has announced.
An extra £200,000 is being made available by the Department of
Health to fund the service through the global sum in England. Currently,
approximately 170,000 refunds are processed annually by the post office.
The funding will be distributed in proportion to prescription volume
rather than as a specific fee per refund. A similar system will operate
in Wales.
The PSNC explained that post office closures have made it difficult for
patients to access refunds and that the post office contract for issuing
refunds will end on 1 April.
Mike Dent, PSNC’s head of finance said, “The FP57 refunds
form has only undertaken minor revisions so there is little extra workload
involved and volumes are not
expected to be high. The Department of Health has agreed that if volumes
are greater than expected then funding can be
reviewed.” |
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