The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of these Regulations)

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”) which provide for the making and recovery of charges for drugs and appliances supplied by doctors and pharmacists providing pharmaceutical services, and by Health Boards and NHS trusts to out-patients.

The definition of nurse prescriber is amended by regulation 2(2) and (3) in order to extend the categories of nurse, midwife or health visitor who may prescribe under the National Health Service in Scotland.

The charge, in regulation 3(1)(b) of the 2001 Regulations, for prescriptions supplied to out patients is increased from £6.10 to £6.20 (regulation 2(4)).

Regulation 2(5) and (8) amend regulation 8 (pre-payment certificates) in order to enable pre-payment certificates to be granted by chemists and doctors and make a minor consequential change in the light of this.

The charge, in regulation 8(5) of the 2001 Regulations, for pre-payment certificates is increased from £31.90 to £32.40 for a 4 month certificate and from £87.60 to £89.00 for a 12 month certificate (regulation 2(6)). The term “prescribed sum” in regulation 8(10) and (11) is substituted by “sum prescribed” for consistency of style (regulation 2(7)).

Schedules 1, 2 and 3 to the 2001 Regulations are substituted in order to increase the various charges set out in those schedules (regulation 2(9)). The charge for elastic stockings is increased from £6.10 to £6.20 each (from £12.20 to £12.40 per pair) and that for tights from £12.20 to £12.40. The charges for surgical brassieres is increased from £20.60 to £20.90 and for fabric supports is increased from £31.00 to £31.50. The charges for modacrylic wigs and partial human hair wigs are increased from £50.70 to £51.50 and from £133.70 to £135.90 respectively. The charge for full human hair wigs is increased from £195.40 to £198.60.

Regulation 3 provides that the increase in charges made by regulation 2(3) to (9) shall be in respect of supplies made on or after 1st April 2002 or where examinations leading to the supply of an appliance take place on or after that date and, in respect of payments of sums for pre-payment certificates, where the pre-payment certificate itself was applied for on or after 1st April 2002.

The British National Formulary is available from the British Medical Association, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JP, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 1 Lambeth High Street, London, SE1 7JN, Pharmaceutical Press, PO Box 151, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8QU or BMJ Books, PO Box 295, London, WC1H 9TE.