EXCLUSIVE

Pharmacists failed to claim for nearly 100,000 prescription items they dispensed through the electronic prescription service (EPS) between January and August last year, a C+D investigation has revealed.
 

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) received 95,869 notifications that a pharmacy had not claimed for an EPS item between January 1 and August 22 2014, information obtained by C+D under the Freedom of Information Act revealed.

These "no claim" notifications are automatically generated if a pharmacist in England dispenses a medicine on an EPS prescription and does not claim payment within 180 days.
 

NHS BSA also received 222,916 “no claim” notifications between August 23 – when the NHS upgraded its central information system, the spine – and October 31, 2014.
 

However, it told C+D that some of these 222,916 notifications were replicates of those sent before the spine transition, while others were false notifications sent on items that pharmacists had claimed for. Therefore, NHS BSA could not say how many of them were “genuine”.
 

Sainsbury's Pharmacy tops 'no claims' list

The figures mean that the average pharmacy in England dispensed eight items for free in the first eight months of 2014.

But a Sainsbury’s Pharmacy in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, failed to claim for 1,864 items in 2014 before the spine transition – the highest number of any pharmacy in England.
 

In light of the news, Sainsbury’s pledged to further train its staff in the branch to ensure they used EPS correctly. A spokesperson told C+D: “We are looking at what appears to be a system oversight.”
 

Nick Hunter, chief officer of Nottinghamshire LPC and secretary to both Doncaster and Rotherham LPCs, told C+D that failure to claim for items could have a big impact on pharmacy businesses that were “close to the line”.
 

He called on the NHS to make pharmacy payments more transparent, allowing individual pharmacies to see how many items they had not claimed for, which would allow pharmacies to improve their processes. More efficient pharmacies would save the NHS money in the long term, he added.
 

“We don’t know what we are going to be paid. I think the government has got to do something. Most pharmacies are small businesses, and [it has] a responsibility to support small businesses,” Mr Hunter told C+D.
 

In October, more than a third of C+D readers voted to scrap EPS altogether in a poll, after an error with the service meant pharmacists may have dispensed medication that was not intended for patients.

 

 

How do you ensure that you claim for EPS items?

 

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