There has been a lot of coverage in the national and pharmaceutical press of the prices being charged to pharmacy owners for certain medicines.
Leaving aside the reasons for steep price rises, I have been asked on social media and elsewhere whether pharmacy owners can refuse to supply prescribed medicines
if they would make a significant financial loss.
Legal obligation
The first thing to point out is that the National Health Service Act 2006 imposes a legal duty on the Secretary of State and NHS England to make arrangements for
people to receive sufficient prescribed drugs.
These arrangements involve the publication of the Drug Tariff.
The Drug Tariff includes reimbursement prices or a method for determining prices. Various factors can be taken into account in determining reimbursement prices. The
Drug Tariff does not provide a pound for pound reimbursement for medicines that pharmacies supply on NHS prescriptions.
Blackwells Chemist, a community pharmacy in South East London did not meet all the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) standards.
The pharmacy was inspected on Thursday (01 June) and it was found it did not keep all its records up to date and accurate, particularly its responsible pharmacist
records. Investigation report stated that the principle of Governance and principle of Services, including medicines management was 'not met at all'.
Under the principle Governance, the report stated: "The pharmacy generally manages the risks associated with its services adequately. People using the pharmacy can
provide feedback or raise concerns. And staff generally protect people's personal information well. Team members know what to do to help protect the welfare of a
vulnerable person. The pharmacy has written procedures, but these are not easily accessible to team members to refer to. And they are not regularly updated. So,
they may be less useful to staff, and may not reflect current best practice."
In the inspection it was found that the pharmacy does not always store its medicines properly. It cannot show that it stores all its medicines requiring cold
storage at the appropriate temperatures.
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