The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2013

The Drug Tariff and remuneration of NHS pharmacists and NHS appliance contractors

41.—(1) The Drug Tariff referred to in section 81(4) of the 2006 Act (arrangements for additional pharmaceutical services) is the aggregate of—

(a) the determinations of remuneration made by the Welsh Ministers, acting as a determining authority, under section 88 of the 2006 Act (remuneration for persons providing pharmaceutical services); and

(b) any other instruments that the Welsh Ministers are required by virtue of these Regulations or the 2006 Act to publish, or which they do publish, together with those determinations,

in the publication known as the Drug Tariff published by the Welsh Ministers in such format as they think fit.

(2) Determinations under section 88 of the 2006 Act by the Welsh Ministers—

(a) may be made by reference to scales, indices or formulae of any kind, and where a determination falls to be made by reference to any such scale, index or formula, the determination may provide that the relevant price calculation is to be made by reference to the scale, index or formula which is—

(i) in the form current at the time of the determination, and

(ii) in any subsequent form taking effect after that time; and

(b) may take effect in relation to remuneration in respect of a period beginning on or after the date specified in the determination, which may be the date of the determination or an earlier or later date, but it may be an earlier date only if, taking the determination as a whole, it is not detrimental to the persons to whose remuneration it relates.

(3) Where a determination included in the Drug Tariff does not specify a date as mentioned in paragraph (2)(b), it will have effect in relation to remuneration in respect of the period beginning on the date on which the change to the Drug Tariff is published in accordance with paragraph (4).

(4) Amendments that may be made to the Drug Tariff at such intervals as the Welsh Ministers think fit must be published by the Welsh Ministers in a consolidated version of the Drug Tariff that has the amendments included in it.

(5) The consultation that the Welsh Ministers undertake under section 89(1) of the 2006 Act (section 88: supplementary) prior to the inclusion of or a change to the price of a drug or appliance which is to form part of a calculation of remuneration must be by way of consultation on the process for determining the price to be included or changed, not on the proposed price itself (unless it is impossible to carry out an effective consultation in any other way).

(6) Payments under the Drug Tariff must be made—

(a) by the Local Health Board responsible for making the payment; and

(b) in accordance with arrangements for claiming and making payments which are to be set out in the Drug Tariff but subject, as appropriate, to any deduction that may or must be made from the remuneration of an NHS pharmacist or NHS appliance contractor under these Regulations or any other Regulations under the 2006 Act.