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Wrong Group Movements

Wrong group movements are the same as burning
money so please, please take this point seriously.
What is a wrong Group Movement? Well its simple;
it is a movement of an exempt prescription to a paid
category by NHS Prescription Services (aka the
PPA). It is a financial tragedy if it is happening with
any sort of frequency. Trust me – I have seen a £30k
loss in one practice! Each wrong group movement
costs you £9.65 per item.
Wrong group movements are a result of poor
prescription administration and are completely
avoidable. If dispensers are careful and accurate
with the filling out of the backs of prescriptions, then
the losses disappear. Simple – you need to train and
check how your prescriptions are being handled.
Every prescription back must be filled correctly
and most importantly SIGNED by the patient, the
patients representative or even you but it must be
someone. Any prescription missing a signature will
be switched to a paid prescription unless there is an
age exemption met via a date of birth or age stated
on the front of the form. Ticking the exemption alone
will not do the job.

The only other mistake that could cause a wrong group movement is the incorrect
addition of a paid amount in the box at the top right corner of the form. This
will override any exemption ticked and the value will be assumed to have been
collected and therefore will be deducted from your payment from prescription
services. This will not cause loss if you did collect the fee but if you didn’t and the
paid value annotated was just a slip of the pen then there will be a deduction.

My best advice is that every prescription
reverse should be completed as a matter of
good practice. Employ this approach and
your wrong group movement losses will be
reduced to nil.
How are you actually doing regarding this?
Well, you don’t need to guess you can check.
Ask your PM for the Drug Wrong Group
Movement Report which can be found on
the PCSE Portal (Blue tab on GP Payments
(Drug Wrong Group Movement Report).
Hopefully the tally will be zero but I suspect
for many of you that will not be the case…

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