This article has arisen after this question was posed to the office from a Dispensing GP
"Can I confirm with you, that the only items we can sell through our practice dispensary to our NHS patients are travel kits? Can I assume that OTC products such as plasters, BP machines etc cannot be sold by the dispensary?"
The regulations on what you can charge for in this context are as follows:
1) For treatment consisting of an immunisation for which no remuneration is payable by the Primary Care Trust and which is requested in connection with travel abroad.
2) For prescribing or providing drugs, medicines or appliances (including a collection of such drugs, medicines or appliances in the form of a travel kit) which a patient requires to have in his possession solely in anticipation of the onset of an ailment or occurrence of an injury while he is outside the United Kingdom but for which he is not requiring treatment when the medicine is prescribed.
3) For prescribing or providing drugs or medicines for malaria chemoprophylaxis.
Para (2) talks about appliances ‘which a patient requires to have in his possession solely in anticipation of the onset of an ailment or occurrence of an injury’. There is no list or guidance to define this further. Most of us would agree that such appliances could include anything related to first aid. I do not think this should include a BP machine but it could include a nebuliser.
Therefore, you can include some non drug items but you need to be able to justify doing so in terms of the above sentence of the regulations.
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