The government's plans to charge tourists and non-European migrants for NHS services must not place an extra burden on pharmacists, pharmacy bodies have warned.

Pharmacy Voice said the government's announcement last week (December 30) that migrants and foreign visitors could be charged the full price for prescriptions and other subsidised services must not turn pharmacists into "an extension of the Home Office".

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society also voiced concerns that the plans to better identify and charge non-European visitors for primary care services would require pharmacists to "absorb another bureaucratic task" and "eat into the time available for direct patient care".

Under the government's plans, which will start to be implemented later this year, the NHS will introduce a system to identify foreign patients who should be charged the full cost for services that are currently subsided for patients entitled to free NHS care. GP and nurse consultations will remain free for all, but GPs will be expected to help identify patients who should be charged for further treatment.

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	Temporary and non-European migrants will pay a health surcharge of around £200 per year as part of their visa application, which would generate an estimated £200 million per year for the NHS, the government said following a consultation that ran from July to August 2013.

Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott told C+D the lobbying group would work with the government to ensure foreign patients who needed to be charged would be identified before they presented a prescription.

Numark managing director John D'Arcy said, although the administration of the charges system had to be "workable", pharmacists would be sending out the wrong message if they used the administrative burden as an excuse not to take part.

"It will be difficult to administer, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. We need to instil a sense of value [in the NHS]," he told C+D this week (January 6).

The NHS spends around £156m per year on potentially chargeable health services for temporary migrants, non-European visitors and expats, the government said.

People who frequently visit the UK to obtain free healthcare could also be costing the health service up to £200m a year in prescriptions and non-emergency hospital referrals, the government added.

Introducing charges at primary care level was the "first step" for the NHS to better identify and charge visitors and migrants, pharmacy minister Earl Howe said last month (December 30).

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