The administrative charge – introduced at the beginning of this month – “reflects the administrative costs involved in NHS BSA calculating and making these payments”, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in a statement on Friday (April 1).

Each month, “a small number of contractors submit their prescription bundles very late” to the relevant pricing divisions at the NHS BSA, the negotiator added.

Consequently, this delays the “processing of their prescription bundles in a timely manner and affects the calculation of payments”, it said.

Contractors are required to submit their FP34C claim forms electronically and dispatch their paper prescription forms, together with a printed copy of the FP34C submission, no later than the fifth day of the following month, PSNC added.

 

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A charge for processing of a late bundle would only apply if a contractor cannot provide evidence of delivery before the fifth of the following month when requested by the NHS BSA.

But one contractor believes the charge is “totally wrong”.

Sheffield-based Armstrong’s Pharmacy owner Chris Armstrong told C+D that if the weekend falls between the submission deadline, “there is just no chance of doing the submission in time. [It’s] totally wrong”.

He added: “Why do NHS BSA need it by the fifth when 99% are electronic prescriptions which we have already claimed?”

 

AIMp: “This is yet another cost burden imposed on us”

 

Meanwhile, chief executive officer of the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp) Leyla Hannbeck told C+D that while contractors do not wish to submit their bundles late, this could end up happening “almost certainly as a result of the pressure caused by workforce shortages”.

No contractor “sets out to submit their forms late as that delays crucial payments at a time when costs are increasing and income is shrinking”, she added.

“This is yet another cost burden imposed on us and further shows how we are treated as second-class suppliers to the NHS despite our first-class performance,” Dr Hannbeck said.

 

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Sheffield-based Wicker Pharmacy’s chairman and superintendent pharmacist Martin Bennet told C+D that while he understands there are “a few persistent offenders” and that the NHS BSA requires the “timely arrival of scripts”, the charge appears “one sided”.

Contractors do not receive compensation for errors made by NHS BSA, he added. The “switching of prescriptions for simple administrative errors is grossly unfair”, he continued.

 

“I think it’s fair”

 

Meanwhile, other contractors are not as disheartened about the introduction of the charge.

Birmingham-based Washwood Health Pharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist Farhat Ahmed said that in the past eight years, her pharmacy has not had “reason to send our prescriptions off late”.

Saghir Ahmed – superintendent pharmacist at 42-strong pharmacy chain Imaan Healthcare – told C+D he felt it was “fair to charge a penalty fee for late submissions”.

The NHS BSA “have their own processes and timeframes to work to”, he added and “if we are expected to be paid on time and correctly, then NHS BSA should expect contractors to submit payments on time”.