As the Prescription Charge has just risen again to £9.35 from April 1st, and as I am helping several dispensaries with some Prescription Charge anomalies, I thought it would be useful to remind dispensing practices how important this is to get this right. Whilst the £9.35 charge does not go into the dispensary as income, […]
Author: Greg Bull
Category M Price Changes April 2021
The Category M prices for April 2021 have been announced on the NHS Prescription Services website which can be found here. This quarter the price changes have been announced later than usual. What to look out for? The top ten price drops can be seen below: Drug Name Pack size Change Liothyronine 20microgram tablets 28 […]
Drug Tariff Price Update March 2021
Drug Tariff News – March Part VIIIA reimbursement prices (issued 19 March) The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed the March Drug Tariff Part VIIIA reimbursement prices for the following items: Chlorpromazine 50mg tablets 28 £19.95Ciprofloxacin 500mg tablets 10 £3.11Duloxetine 30mg gastro-resistant capsules 28 £1.82Duloxetine 60mg gastro-resistant capsules 28 £3.18Enalapril 10mg tablets 28 £5.99Eplerenone 25mg tablets […]
Don’t Lose Patients!
I was at a surgery a while ago and the dispensary manager and I were discussing the implications of turning on the Electronic Prescription Service [EPS] and the impact on dispensing. Many dispensing practices have been encouraged into using EPS over last year, but before you do this please make sure you are prepared fully […]
Dispensing Fee Set to Fall
After the last year we have had and the uncertainty of when we will be returning to “normal” another piece of news which dispensing doctors really did not want to read. The dispensing fee is due to drop by about 10% from April 2021. This means that the profitability of your dispensary will drop yet […]
Dispensing Doctor Buying Groups; Are They a Good Idea?
Ever since retail pharmacy realised there was strength in numbers, especially purchasing power, the buying group was formed. Does anyone know who the first retail pharmacy buying group was? Email me if you know, or leave a comment, it’s something I would be interested in. contact@dispensingdoctorexperts.co.uk Anyhow, I first came across the idea of Buying […]
Profitable Dispensing Tips #2 – Monitor Your Dispensing Rate
How Many Items per Hour are you dispensing? So many phone calls I have taken over the years begin something like, “Greg, we’ve had the annual accounts back and the dispensary is showing a loss for the year…” to which my initial response [in my head] is surprise to put it mildly. A dispensary which […]
Profitable Dispensing Tips #1 – Modified Release Brands
The clinical decision must always come first, the patient must receive treatment according to their clinical need and prescribing decisions always need to be based on clinical need. In my experience of working with dispensing doctors for over twenty five years, it is generally accepted that for patients on a modified release medicine, continuity of […]
March 2021 Drug Tariff Further Update
March is generally a quieter month for Tariff activity, prior to the start of April. 1st April is the start of the new financial quarter and there will be Category M price changes. This can be seen a few weeks in advance via this link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/drug-tariff/drug-tariff-part-viii If you or someone in your team has time, […]
Generic Profitability – Part One
A large volume of your dispensed items in a dispensing practice will be your everyday generic items. Most dispensary managers will have a good idea of what those are, and they will be ordered regularly. Most of these will have a low Drug Tariff price, and the margin gained dispensing them will be relatively low […]
