HC Deb 08 January 2002 vol 377 cc615-7W
Mr. Goodman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he plans to(a) alter and (b) review the list of exempted conditions for prescription charges. [18891]

Ms Blears

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) on 6 November 2001,Official Report, column 228W.

Mrs. Ellman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will request the Prescription Pricing Authority to enable pharmacists to be informed of the specific reasons for transferring individual prescription items from exempt to chargeable groups without requiring them to travel to health authority premises to obtain the information. [19809]

Ms Blears

The monthly payment statement which the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA) sends to community pharmacies provides summary information on the number of prescriptions transferred from exempt to chargeable (and vice versa) and the reason in broad groups. It is not practicable for the PPA to provide routinely details of individual prescriptions switched. Community pharmacists can, however, ring the PPA's helpline to discuss forms that have been switched. In many cases this resolves the problem without any need for the pharmacist to inspect the forms.

Mr. Swayne

To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reason the fee paid for dispensing NHS prescriptions has been changed; and what assessment he has made of the impact of the change upon the provision of community pharmacy services. [20282]

Ms Blears

The fee paid to pharmacies in England and Wales for dispensing national health service prescriptions has been changed as a consequence of the recent decision to set the Global Sum for 2001–02 at £806.6 million (an increase of 3.7 per cent. over the previous year). The Global Sum is the amount to be paid to pharmacies overall for the NHS pharmaceutical services they provide each year. The dispensing fee is one of a number of fees and allowances by which the Global Sum is distributed between pharmacies. Such fees are reviewed each time the annual Global Sum is set. Our assessment of the effect of the settlement for this year is that it appropriately remunerates community pharmacies for the service they provide

Dr. Fox

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the most recent review of the prescription system that he has carried out. [20860]

Ms Blears

"Pharmacy in the Future—Implementing the NHS Plan", published in September 2000, set out our proposals for changes to the prescription system. These includebetter access to medicines out of hours; the introduction of repeat dispensing, beginning next year; the introduction of electronic prescriptions with the vast majority of prescriptions being electronic by 2008; schemes across the country by 2004 under which people will get more help from pharmacists in using their medicines, and extending prescribing responsibilities to new groups of health professionals.

Mr. Todd

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the(a) projected percentage volume change in prescriptions to be issued in 2001–02 and (b) the percentage change in the fee per prescription payable to pharmacy contractors in 2001–02 after allowing for clawback of payments related to 2000–01 activity; and if he will make a statement; [21081]

(2) what estimate he has made of the cost to a pharmacy contractor of supplying a prescription. [21079]

Ms Blears

We forecast that the number of national health service prescription items dispensed by community pharmacies in England and Wales in 2001–02 will be 6 per cent. higher than in 2000–01.

The fees paid to pharmacy contractors vary according to the item prescribed. However, the majority of prescriptions attract a basic dispensing fee. From July 1999 to October 2001 that fee was 97.5p. From November 2001 to March 2002 it will be 87.4p. We therefore forecast that the average value of the basic dispensing fees paid to pharmacy contractors for prescriptions dispensed in 2001–02 will be 93.2p, a reduction of 4.4 per cent. compared with 2000–01.

The basic dispensing fee is one of a number of fees and allowances by which the global sum for community pharmacies is distributed between pharmacy contractors. The global sum is the amount to be paid to contractors overall in the year in question. The global sum for 2001–02 for England and Wales is £806.6 million, an increase of 3.7 per cent. over 2000–01.

If remuneration is expressed as the global sum divided by the number of prescription items dispensed, then the remuneration per prescription in 2001–02 is forecast to be 135.4p, a reduction of 2.2 per cent. compared with 2000–01.

Actual payments will be different because there was an overpayment of £8.1 million in respect of 2000–01, which is to be recovered by reducing this year's payments. Taking that overpayment and recovery into account the actual payment per prescription item for 2001–02 is forecast to be 134.1p, a reduction of 4 per cent. compared with the actual payment per prescription in 2000–01

While we take information and arguments about pharmacy contractors' costs into account when setting remuneration, we have made no assessment of the cost to a pharmacy contractor of supplying each individual prescription.