The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7371 p471
15 October 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Allowances for electronic prescription service announced

Allowances for the electronic prescription service to be provided through community pharmacies have been agreed by the Department of Health and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

The service will be deployed in two phases (the first phase having a paper prescription alongside the electronic version).

All pharmacy contractors will be paid £2,600 (£1,300 in December and £1,300 in February 2006), which will be linked to the first phase. If a pharmacy has not deployed the service, its primary care trust will be able to reclaim this allowance. A further allowance of £1,000 will be paid sometime in 2006-07, linked to deployment of the full electronic service (with electronic rather than paper prescriptions being sent to the Prescription Pricing Authority for payment). Again, if a pharmacy does not deploy the service, its PCT will reclaim the allowance. When the service is operational and an appropriate prescription is presented or requested, the pharmacy can claim £200 per month from its PCT.