Pharmacists are likely to be out of pocket under DoH patient pack proposals
Community pharmacists could be out of pocket if Government proposals to encourage patient pack dispensing go ahead, the Company Chemists Association has warned.
The Department of Health is consulting over its plans to allow pharmacists
to be able to round up, or down, the quantity ordered on a prescription
in order to promote
original patient pack dispensing (PJ, 17 September,
p329).
Under this system, pharmacists would be paid according to the quantity
prescribed rather than the quantity supplied.
The CCA, which represents some of the larger multiple pharmacy chains
including Boots The Chemists, Alliance Pharmacy and Lloydspharmacy, warned
this week that
the proposal would “result in a loss to
contractors”.
It is also worried that the practice could encourage pharmaceutical advisers
to promote the prescribing of 28-day packs knowing that the patient would
receive a full calendar pack.
The CCA said: “The averaging which the Department of Health believes
will happen will be distorted as primary care trusts and prescribers
will have an incentive to adjust behaviour.
“The department should work towards the standardisation of a month
in order to harmonise and promote calendar pack
prescribing.”
The CCA said it supported the DoH’s proposal to allow pharmacists
to “round” quantities but contractors should be paid according
to the quantity supplied rather than, as the DoH suggests, for the quantity
prescribed. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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