Contractor Services

The thirteen members of Contractor Services provide information and support to members of Community Pharmacy Scotland and Pharmacy Contractor Committees.   This includes providing information on the pricing and endorsing of prescriptions and monitoring and reporting on the accuracy of prescription pricing.

You can find out more about the members of Contractor Services in the staff section of about us.

Information Services
Our team provides information and support to members on any aspect of the NHS pharmaceutical care contract.
If you have any problems or questions on

• Any aspect of your NHS Contract
• Your monthly payment schedule
  We can help you interpret anything you do not understand about your payments. If you do not agree with any aspect of your payment we can arrange to have your submission of  scripts to be  sent to us for checking. We check the original form against PSD's priced file and report any errors to PSD for adjustment.
• Shortages of Drug Tariff items
  From time to time you might have difficulty in sourcing Drug Tariff generics. If the shortage persists please let us know and we will inform the government. If the government agrees that a geniune shortage exists then the Pricing Bureau is instructed to allow endorsements of a proprietary equivalent until supplies of the generic become available.
• Items allowed on NHS prescription.
  If you are in doubt about whether an item is allowed on a particular form (e.g CP2, Stock Order, GP10 etc.) we will find out for you.
• Claiming Contract Preparation Payments.
  There have been three Contract Preparation Payments (CPPs) during 2007-08 which should now have been claimed.
  There is a strong possibility that more such payments will be introduced before the Pharmaceutical Care Contract is fully functional. If you have any questions or problems with fulfilling the criteria or with how to claim these payments.

Presciption Price Checking
Contractor Services carries out the only independent check on the pricing of NHS prescriptions dispensed in Scotland.  
Routine checks are carried out on a monthly cycle. For each dispensing month our department checks the accuracy of pricing of a minimum 100,000 prescribed items.   These items are picked at random by ISD in the form of complete submissions.  
Our checkers correct any errors found and report the errors back to PSD. All errors in excess of £50 or 0.5% of the value of the submission are corrected by PSD. Each contractor concerned is notified at the beginning and the end of the process.  
Our checkers comment on the accuracy of pricing and the quality of the endorsing and give advice to individual contractors where necessary.
We also check the accuracy of pricing of submissions on request.  
Our contractor members can request a check if they are concerned about any aspect of their payment schedule.  For example if the number of items priced for a particular month, or the number of prescription charges deducted do not match the number submitted, our department will carry out a specific check on the contractor’s behalf. 
Our department also checks the price changes made to the drug tariff on a monthly basis and keeps an up to date version of all the drugs and preparations in the masterfile.

You can contact us on 0131 466 3540 or alternatively send us an email at
csd-enquiries@communitypharmacyscotland.org.uk