I am writing to all dispensing practices regarding this issue.
Those practices that used the EMIS Web Dispensing Module were informed during March that the pre-existing arrangement whereby this module was centrally funded by NHS England was coming to an end.
Dispensing colleagues will be aware via the Dispensing Doctors’s Association (DDA) that GPC England challenged this decision, and central funding will now continue. However, no date has been given in terms of how long this reprieve will last or whether the decision will be permanently reversed.
This decision comes against a backdrop of increasing concern about the economic viability of dispensing given the workload involved, especially given stock shortages which look set to worsen. No new negotiations have yet been agreed with NHSE/DHSC in terms of dispensing fee scales. The DDA and GPC England have recurrently raised concerns about the disproportionate challenges facing GP practices and their patients in rural areas, and colleagues are encouraged to publicise these issues and, for example, raise these with their local MP.
I hope an update to this issue will follow shortly.