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Press release: NHS Employers and GPC announce new dispensing fee scale

28 Mar 2006

A new unified dispensing fee scale will come into effect from 1st April 2006.  

NHS Employers, the BMA's General Practitioners Committee (GPC) and the Dispensing Doctors' Association have developed the new tariff which removes the link between the cost of medicines and remuneration that is delivered via the current "on-cost" fee.

Whilst being cost neutral overall, the change will have a varying effect on practices. Dr Peter Holden, a GPC negotiator said: "Most practices will be largely unaffected by the new tariff but there may be some doctors, because of varying dispensing patterns, who notice a change. Practices that have prescribed cost-effectively are more likely to benefit from the new arrangements."

Philip Grant, NHS Employers' Finance Director, said:

"This new fee scale is more transparent, simpler and removes the on-cost mechanism which rewarded practices for dispensing higher cost drugs. I am pleased to have been able to support the final fee scale proposed by the GPC which met the criteria we had jointly agreed for a new remuneration mechanism."

The negotiators are also developing a new Dispensary Quality Scheme which will align more closely the services that patients can expect to receive from dispensing doctors to those that patients in other areas receive from community pharmacies. A maximum of £8 million will be made available to practices and paid on a capitation basis subject to achievement of the minimum standards and additional services to be set out in the scheme.  

The present changes are effective for the coming financial year only pending a full review of dispensing income.

Notes for editors

• The on-cost fee amounts to 10.5% of the basic cost of a dispensed item, which is paid in addition to a dispensing fee based on a sliding scale that is weighted to low dispensing turnover. On-cost was removed from community pharmacy remuneration many years ago.
• More information about the Dispensary Quality Scheme will be published shortly.  
  

Contact details

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• Gemma Jeffcoate
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• Emma Stafford
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