The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2020

Providing ordered drugs or appliances

9.—(1) Where an NHS pharmacist is presented with a prescription form or a repeatable prescription, the NHS pharmacist must only provide the drugs or appliances so ordered—

(a) if the prescription form or repeatable prescription is duly signed and endorsed as described in paragraph 5(1) or (2), and

(b) in accordance with the order and any directions given by the prescriber on the prescription form or repeatable prescription,

subject to any regulations in force under the Weights and Measures Act 1985(1) and the following provisions of this Part.

(2) Drugs or appliances so ordered must be provided either by or under the direct supervision of a registered pharmacist.

(3) Where the pharmacist referred to in sub-paragraph (2) is employed by an NHS pharmacist, the registered pharmacist must not be someone—

(a) who is disqualified from inclusion in a relevant list, or

(b) who is suspended from the General Pharmaceutical Council Register.

(4) If the order is for, or a product to be provided in accordance with a SSP is, an appliance of a type requiring measuring and fitting (for example a truss), the NHS pharmacist must make all necessary arrangements—

(a) for measuring the person named on the prescription form or repeatable prescription for the appliance, and

(b) for fitting the appliance.

(5) If the order is for, or a product to be provided in accordance with a SSP is, a drug or appliance included in the Drug Tariff, the British National Formulary (including any Appendix published as part of that Formulary), the Dental Practitioner’s Formulary, the European Pharmacopoeia or the British Pharmaceutical Codex, the drug or appliance provided must comply with the standard or formula specified therein.

(6) If the order—

(a) is an order for a drug, but

(b) is not an order for a controlled drug within the meaning of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 other than a drug which is for the time being specified in Schedule 4 or 5 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001,

and does not prescribe its quantity, strength or dosage, an NHS pharmacist may provide the drug in such strength and dosage as in the exercise of their professional skill, knowledge and care they consider to be appropriate and, subject to sub-paragraph (7), in such quantity as they consider to be appropriate for a course of treatment for a period not exceeding 5 days.

(7) Where an order to which sub-paragraph (6) applies is for—

(a) an oral contraceptive substance;

(b) a drug, which is available for supply as part of pharmaceutical services only together with one or more other drugs, or

(c) an antibiotic in a liquid form for oral administration in respect of which pharmaceutical considerations require its provision in an unopened package,

which is not available for provision as part of pharmaceutical services except in such packages that the minimum size available contains a quantity appropriate to a course of treatment for a period of more than 5 days, the NHS pharmacist may provide the minimum size available package.

(8) Where any drug to which this paragraph applies (that is, a drug that is not one to which the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 applies, unless it is a drug for the time being specified in Schedule 4 or 5 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001), ordered by a prescriber on a prescription form or repeatable prescription, is available for provision by an NHS pharmacist in a pack in a quantity which is different to the quantity which has been so ordered, and that drug is—

(a) sterile,

(b) effervescent or hygroscopic,

(c) a liquid preparation for addition to bath water,

(d) a coal tar preparation,

(e) a viscous preparation, or

(f) packed at the time of its manufacture in a calendar pack or special container,

the NHS pharmacist must provide the drug in the pack whose quantity is nearest to the quantity which has been so ordered.

(9) In this paragraph, “special container” means any container with an integral means of application or from which it is not practicable to dispense an exact quantity.

(10) Where a drug is ordered by a prescriber, or is to be provided in accordance with a SSP is, in a quantity that is, or is a multiple of a quantity that is, readily available in a pack size manufactured for a marketing authorisation holder for the drug, the NHS pharmacist must provide the drug in an original pack (or in original packs) of that size which have been assembled by a manufacturer of the drug for such a marketing authorisation holder, unless—

(a) it is not possible for the NHS pharmacist to obtain such a pack (or packs) with reasonable promptness in the normal course of business, or

(b) it is not practicable for the NHS pharmacist to provide such a pack (or packs) in response to the order (for example because of patient needs or the method of administration of the drug).

(11) Except as provided in sub-paragraph (12), an NHS pharmacist must not provide a Scheduled drug in response to an order by name, formula or other description on a prescription form or repeatable prescription.

(12) Where a drug has an appropriate non-proprietary name and it is ordered on a prescription form or repeatable prescription either by that name or by its formula, an NHS pharmacist may provide a drug which has the same specification notwithstanding that it is a Scheduled drug, provided that where a Scheduled drug is in a pack which consists of a drug in more than one strength, such provision does not involve the supply of part only of the pack.

(13) Where a drug which is ordered as specified in sub-paragraph (12) combines more than one drug, that sub-paragraph must apply only if the combination has an appropriate non-proprietary name, whether the individual drugs which it combines do so or not.

(14) An NHS pharmacist must provide any drug which they are required to provide under paragraph 5, or provides under paragraph 6, in a suitable container.

(15) Where an NHS pharmacist provides a drug or appliance under paragraph 6, the NHS pharmacist must include in the dispensing label on the packaging of the product, for the patient’s benefit, information to the effect that the product is being supplied in accordance with a SSP, identifying the particular SSP.

(1)

1985 c. 72.