The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2000

Supply of drugs and appliances by doctors

4.—(1) A doctor who provides pharmaceutical services to a patient shall, subject to paragraph (3), make and recover from that patient–

(a) in respect of an item of elastic hosiery a charge of £6.00, that is to say a charge of £12.00, per pair;

(b) in respect of the supply of each other appliance and of each quantity of a drug, a charge of £6.00.

(2) Where a charge is paid under paragraph (1), the person making the payment shall on doing so sign a declaration in writing on the prescription form that the relevant charge has been paid.

(3) No charge shall be made and recovered under paragraph (1) where–

(a) there is exemption under regulation 7 and a declaration of entitlement to exemption on the prescription form is duly completed by or on behalf of the patient;

(b) there is entitlement to remission of the charge under regulation 3 of the Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges Regulations and a declaration of entitlement to remission on the prescription form is duly completed by or on behalf of the patient;

(c) the drugs or appliances are supplied in respect of two or more persons in a school or institution in which at least 20 persons are normally resident of whom at least 10 are his patients.

(4) For the purposes of this regulation, where a drug ordered on a single prescription form is supplied by instalments, the charge of £6.00 payable for that drug shall be payable upon the supply of the first instalment.

(5) A doctor shall be under no obligation to provide pharmaceutical services for which a charge is required to be made and recovered by paragraph (1) unless he is first paid the amount of that charge by the patient.

(6) A doctor who makes and recovers a charge under paragraph (1) shall, if so required by the patient, give him a receipt for the amount received on the form provided for the purpose which form shall contain forms of declaration in support of an application for repayment and information as to whom an application for repayment shall be made.

(7) A doctor shall as soon as practicable after the end of each month send a sum of money, equal to the total of the charges required to be made and recovered by him under paragraph (1) during that month, as the case may be–

(a) to the Health Authority on whose medical list he is included, or

(b) if he is included on more than one medical list, to the Health Authority which, pays him for the provision of general medical services on behalf of all the Health Authorities concerned, or

(c) if the doctor is performing personal medical services in connection with a pilot scheme, to the Health Authority or Primary Care Trust which is a party to that pilot scheme.

(8) Nothing in this regulation shall authorise the payment of a charge where the drug or appliance supplied either–

(a) is needed for immediate treatment and no order for the drug or appliance is made on a prescription form; or

(b) is administered or applied to the patient by the doctor personally.