The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7417 p301
9 September 2006

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PSNC reveals underpayment of pharmacies

Checks of the accuracy of prescription pricing by the NHS in England showed that contractors were paid on average 0.05 per cent less than they were due in the past financial year.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s annual report for 2005–06 says that the National Prescription Research Centre checked just over 2.75 million prescriptions (0.4 per cent of those dispensed) and found that 1.04 per cent of them had been priced incorrectly by the NHS Business Services Authority.

Special checks carried out at the request of contractors who believed that they had lost out found a slightly smaller overall error rate, but a greater loss, at a 0.08 per cent underpayment.

The annual report also records that the PSNC surplus of income over expenditure for the year halved from £40, 865 in the year ended 31 March 2005 to £20,884 the year ended 31 March 2006. The PSNC’s turnover in 2005–06 was £2.53m.