§ Mr. FlookTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the time taken to issue pre-payment certificates for NHS prescription charges is; and if he will make a statement. [80608]
(2) when the issuing of pre-payment certificates for NHS prescription charges was centralised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. [80609]
(3) what estimate he has made of when the issuing of pre-payment certificates for prescription charges will meet the contract delivery target; and what that target is. [80610]
244W(4) for what reason the telephone number for inquiries about slow processing of pre-payment certificates now centralised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne was not included in the information sent to existing users. [80611]
(5) where the call centre that handles inquiries about delays in processing pre-payment certificates for prescription charges is physically based. [80612]
§ Mr. LammyThe Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA) became responsible for the issue of pre-payment certificates (PPCs) in respect of applications received on or after 1 October. Applications sent before 1 October should have been dealt with by health authorities and the PPA telephone number for inquiries should therefore have been irrelevant to people who applied for PPCs before that date. A number of health authorities did, however, send applications received before 1 October to the PPA. Rather than return them and thus add further to the time taken to issue certificates, the PPA decided that they would issue the certificates themselves
The target for issuing pre-payment certificates ordered by telephone is 14 days and that target is being met. The target for issuing PPCs by post is 21 calendar days of the application being received (as shown on the application form) and that target is being met. On 19 November applications received by post on 1 November were being processed. Applications made by phone are generally being processed within seven days. These targets will be kept under review
The call centre that handles telephone requests for PPCs and inquiries is based in Nottingham. A further inquiry line is based in Newcastle