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So why do we have so many moans and groans? Well granted, making money out of
dispensing NHS prescriptions used to be easier. Go back 30 years and pharmacy and
dispensaries alike were rolling in the proverbial clover but slowly that easy profit has been
whittled away by a tightening of the NHS purse strings and today our expectations need to be
realistic. That doesn’t mean though, that all is gloom and doom and when you compare your
business with pharmacy, I would probably want to be in your shoes rather than those of the
average chemist shop owner.

Let me give you some of the good stuff for you to focus on.

1. Dispensing fees

DDs have a dispensing fee scale which is based on the number of prescription items
submitted per GP. In other words, each GP has their own mini account within the practice
account and the lower the number of items submitted on a particular GPs account the
greater the fee paid.

OCT 23 FEESCALE Already I can hear the cynics
Total prescriptions Fee/Rx amongst you expressing your
calculated separately for negative opinion on how this fee
each individual practitioner in bands (p) seems to always be going down
Up to 464 207.4 (just reduced by 19.4% in October
465-581 204.4 23 from the previous scale) but, as is
582-698 201.7 the norm, it will go up again on April
699-813 199.1 24th by 13.3%. This swinging of fees
simply reflects overpayment and
814-931 196.8 underpayment within an envelope
932-1045 194.7 of funds available. It shouldn’t really
1046-1453 192.6 cause angst as the average seems
1454-2034 190.8 to sit at a healthy £2 per item or
2035-2324 189.2 thereabouts even with the reduction.
2325-2906 187.7 On the other hand, pharmacy sit with
2907-3485 186.4 a single activity fee of £1.27 and of
3486-4067 185.3 this only about 90p will relate to the
dispensing fee being paid. Imagine that
4068-4646 184.3 and then imagine the pain of a £50-
4647 and over 183.6 60K pharmacists’ salary to pay too!

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