Dressings price cuts imposed
Prices paid to pharmacy contractors in England and Wales by the Department of Health for a range of dressings and blood glucose test strips are to be cut
from 1 October.
After two years of consultations, the reimbursement price of standard
and compression bandages will fall by 8 per cent to bring the cost in
primary care in line with secondary care. Higher price cuts have been
imposed on some other products, ranging from 40.5 per cent for some dressings
packs to 78 per cent for a pack of standard gauze swabs.
The reimbursement price of some blood glucose test strips is also to
fall — by 12 per cent — on the same date. Only those with
a total cost to primary care of less than £15,000 last year are
unaffected. There will be a further 3 per cent cut on 1 November if manufacturers
stop providing free test meters, educational materials and telephone
helplines for patients.
Independent Pharmacists’ Federation member Graham Phillips said
that the price cut would reduce the ability of pharmacies to generate
purchase profit, which is a key element of their total remuneration under
the NHS contract. It would hit independent pharmacies harder than the
multiples. “This is why we want to move to remuneration based on
cognitive services,” he said. “It underlines the fact that
we need to move towards a clinically based contract like they have in
Scotland.”
A Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee spokesman said: “We
hope and expect that prices to pharmacies will drop and have been in
contact with the Department of Health. … Purchase profit income measurement
will not be affected.” |
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