Consultation starts on contract application fees
Charges of up to £3,000 could be levied on contractors applying to provide pharmaceutical services in England.
A Government
consultation published last week proposes amendments to
the 2005 Regulations to implement the provisions of the Health Act 2006.
These are to enable “reasonable charges” to be introduced
for applications concerning inclusion on an NHS primary care trust’s
list.
The fees are designed to defray the costs of assessing each application
and to deter speculative and time-wasting applications, the DoH says. “There
is, even within the reformed regime now in place, no deterrent to a business
which wishes to enter speculative bids to open a new chemist, either
as a fishing expedition in the hope that one or more may be granted or
to have the effect of blocking other applicants being considered.”
The fees proposed vary from £150 for a minor relocation or change
of ownership to £3,000 for a duplicate application submitted within
180 days of the failure of a previous application. The consultation adds: “The
DoH proposes that the fee shall not be refundable whether the application
is successful or not because a PCT will incur costs in all cases in determining
an application, whatever its outcome.”
When the Government originally suggested introducing these changes, the
Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee argued that fees should
not be payable for pharmacy relocations or changes to ownership and that
all fees should be refunded to successful applicants.
Steve Lutener, head of regulation at the PSNC, told The Journal this
week that the committee would be considering carefully whether its position
on refundability had changed.
The consultation document is available from the DoH
website. Comments can be sent to
Gillian Farnfield by 11 May (e-mail gillian.farnfield@dh.gsi.gov.uk).
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