I hope you are well?

I have a question for you…we have been on a recent training course and been advised that Endorsing the prescription has no effect and is a waste of our time. We are spending a significantly amount of time endorsing the Generic over Tariff – are we wasting our time?

Hi there,

Hope you are well?

I think you are getting confused between endorsing and amending!

Adding the manufacturer to the main body for a ‘generic over tariff’ is an amendment and this will get picked up by prescription services.

Endorsing is when you add information to the left-hand column only so for example if the prescription says lacosamide and you dispense Vimpat and put Vimpat in the left-hand column, this will have no effect and is a waste of your time.

Hope that makes sense?

Hi Amanda, 

Hope you are well?

Just reading June Newsletter and have a question on the Brand V Generic section?

 I assume as long as we are amending the generic prescription properly, that the risk of being hammered with a major loss disappears?

So, for instance, as long as we are amending all of our Pregabalin 50mg capsules (84 pack size) with the manufacturer in the main body, we are okay, and we don’t have to change them all to branded Lyrica (I’m fairly sure I’d be hearing from medicines management shortly if we did)?

Thanks for the clarity.

HI there,

Yes you are correct, as long as you are catching these items over tariff and amending the script, we will negate the loss.

The idea of the comparison is to highlight how difficult things are and sometimes you make a loss, no matter what you do.

Yes monitor the price of the pregabalin 50, wait and see if it goes on concession for June. Only amend If the item is not on concession or not on concession at enough money!

Hi Amanda,

Hope you’re well? I have a question – if I may?

We have been advised to start prescribing Emcozin from our ICB because Zapain is Out of Stock – is this the correct thing to do?

Hi  

Lovely to hear from you and definitely no problem for any questions.

I’ve had a quick look, Emcozin is out of stock at Alliance but in stock with AAH so potentially there could be stock issues with this one too!

For the dispensing patients, we would still want a generic prescription and the team to source as cheap a generic as possible.

Just checking other options and there seems to be stock issues with other branded Co-codamol.

Capsule stock seems better.

It might be best for all patients to have a generic prescription at the moment (even non dispensing patients) so the pharmacies can source other options.

Hope that makes sense?