The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7493 p295
15 March 2008

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Lansley tells of category M “boom and bust”

Greater transparency is needed in pharmacy reimbursement, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley argues in a letter to The Journal this week. Large overpayments and subsequent cuts in Category M prices have led to a “boom and bust” pattern that is in no one’s interests, he writes.

The details of the funding of the pharmacy contract must be disclosed and discussed, he insists. “The implications are too important. This involves several billion pounds of public spending.”

Additional pharmacy services could have been commissioned from the resources spent on excess payments for dispensing Category M medicines, Mr Lansley believes, and the Government must be challenged over its management of the pharmacy contract.


Letters p305