§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what compensation is paid to GPs who lose their right to dispense; 127629]
(2) what plans he has to reform regulations that permit the removal of the right to dispense from a GP. [127630]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonGeneral practitioners do not normally receive compensation if they are no longer required to dispense National Health Service prescriptions. Primary care trusts can make transitional arrangements to ensure an orderly winding-down of such dispensing services.
The Government has no plans to change the conditions under which certain GPs can dispense NHS prescriptions. However, in our response to the Health Select Committee Fifth Report, The Control of Entry Regulations and Retail Pharmacy Services in the UK (Cm 5896) on 17 July 2003, we said that we would invite medical and pharmacy representative bodies to look again at existing proposals to reform the rules governing rural NHS dispensing.
We are setting up an advisory group to advise on how best to implement a series of changes we are proposing to current NHS dispensing rules. We published further details on 29 August 2003 in Proposals to Reform and Modernise the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1992. A copy has been placed in the Library. We will also ask the group to consider the results of the representative bodies' consideration of their proposals for reforming the rules governing rural NHS dispensing.