§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if under his regulations prescriptions issued by a consultant to a private patient seen either at his private practice or in a hospital out-patients department are permitted to be dispensed in a hospital pharmacy; and if he will issue instructions that the full retail price, dispensers' fees and container charges shall be met in such cases.
§ Mr. CrossmanPrescriptions for private non-resident hospital patients are not normally dispensed at hospital pharmacies but when, exceptionally, this is permitted, the hospital is required to make a charge to cover the whole cost including overheads. Private prescriptions issued to patients other than those seen at hospital cannot be dispensed at hospital pharmacies.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will issue instructions that no hospital doctor may prescribe for his own use any drug, hard or soft, to be issued through his own hospital pharmacy in order to avoid self-diagnosis, self-prognosis and self-prescribing.
§ Mr. CrossmanHospitals have been advised that members of the hospital staff should obtain any drugs they need for their own treatment in the same way as other members of the public.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will have a spot 18W check of the prescriptions dispensed in any six teaching hospitals to ascertain the quantity of scheduled drugs which are being self-prescribed.
§ Mr. CrossmanI see no reason to single out teaching hospitals, but if my hon. Friend has any particular information and will write to me, I will consider it.