Page 26 - P4304.1-V111_PS Magazine - July 25

A. The filling in of the reverse of the
Q. Are we right in thinking that if a prescription form should be carried
prescription exemption has been
out by the patient where possible or
clearly marked, the prescription will
by a dispenser if the patient requires
be considered as exempt even if we
assistance. It is not your job to ‘police’
have not seen the exemption? Will the
the declarations of exemption, however
dispensary be charged the fee if the
if you do not see the proof of exemption
exemption they have ticked?
case by ticking the box. If the patient
has been fraudulent in the declaration
Mailbox patient proves not to be entitled to the then you can indicate that this is the
of exemption, this will be followed up by
the NHS direct with the patient, so you
do not need to worry.
What is important though, is that you make sure the patient or
dispenser signs in the signature box as no signature can result
in the exempt prescription being moved to paid and in this case
it will mean that the dispensary will be deducted a prescription
Caroline Pond answers charge for every item on that form.

(if you are EPS in your dispensary and you register for RTEC
(Real Time Exemption checking) then PMR system will perform
some of your most recent
automatic checks during the dispensing process.)

questions…
A. Private prescriptions must be retained
Q. How long must we retain private for 2 years from the date of supply, as
per Human Medicines Regulations 2012
prescription form for after they
(Regulation 253).
have been dispensed. We have a
They must be kept in a readily
box full of them dating back to the
electronic) and available for inspection
1990’s! retrievable form (either physical or
by relevant authorities such as the
CQC or GMC.
Forms older than 2 years can be
destroyed in a GDPR complaint manner
(shredded)

A. Wasted stock is always such a shame
Q. We have just tallied up how much and unfortunately there is nothing you
can do to reduce that already incurred
stock we lost due to it going out of date
financial loss. The answer of course, is
last year and the value is eye watering.
Is there anything we can do to ‘claim
I would recommend a number of
back’ the losses? to avoid any wate in the first place.
strategies to try and minimise losses
from expired stock in the dispensary:
1. Carry little or no spare stock. I know I bang on about this but
if you have no stock on your shelves then it stands to reason
that you will have no loss from items going out of date! You If you have any question,
will of course still carry some acute prescriptions meds such my inbox is always open
as antibiotics but if you keep the range small then again, the
likelihood of stock standing on the shelves for long will be low. carolinepond@chasepeople.com
2. Check the dates of stock as it comes in – send back short-
dated stock rather than putting on the shelf.
3. Make sure you use up split packs first; the vast majority of
expired fast moving stock lines will most likely be splits and this
loss is completely avoidable.
4. Send back stock that arrives in error promptly, so you do not
get stuck with it.

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