FAQ

Morning Amanda, hope you’re well?  Quick query, when we have a script for Desogestrel we usually dispense Cerelle. I’m not sure if this is a default by us, as know there are other brands, but my question is  

Should we be writing Cerelle on the body of the script?

The price for Cerelle is £3.50 and Drug Tariff is £2.26 for Desogestrel.

If the prescription says Desogestrel, you should be dispensing generic desogestrel.

Cerelle should be dispensed against a Cerelle prescription.

The best profitable way is a generic script and a generic dispensed.

Hi Amanda

Quick question, if a patient pays for their medication, do they need to pay for Nebido injection or is it free?

With regard to Nebido, if you dispense it at the surgery, it would be classed as a Personally Administered item and attract no prescription charge.

However, if the patient took the Nebido to a local pharmacy, they don’t have the facility to Personally Administer anything and so the patient would pay £9.35 for the item.

It is however a loss maker for the dispensary as it’s a zero-wholesaler discount item.

Ideally if the patient is exempt, I would send the prescription to a local pharmacy as the pharmacy can tick the exemption.

If the patient paid actual cash, I would dispense at the surgery and take the financial hit.

Hi Amanda

Do you think you could clarify sutures?  Are they a Personally Administered item? And do they need to go through on a separate script? 

Yes, Sutures are classed as Personally administered.

However, you need to be sure you prescribe the sutures listed in the Drug Tariff part 9 (pages 627,628 of the October Drug Tariff) as many of the types of sutures were removed from the Drug Tariff a couple of years ago.

They don’t necessarily have to go on a separate prescription as prescription services will know they are a PA item.