At Community Pharmacy Scotland, we want to help our members stay up to date, informed and knowledgeable, especially when it comes to items that will not be passed for payment on a prescription. To support this, we provide a list of disallowed items monthly to contractors who have requested these reports, you can also see these in your eSchedules. We also review a selection of items monthly to ensure Practitioner Services’ accuracy and to keep you informed of any items which have been disallowed repeatedly. Our Pharmacy Services Team deal with enquiries relating to disallowed items and can help you to understand why an item has been rejected and how to avoid reoccurrence.
We have compiled various lists specific to the Drug Tariff, of items which are disallowed on NHS prescription forms in Scotland including the most common disallowed items. Please note that although this data was collated from 2018 it will be reviewed regularly. There are monthly updates to the Drug Tariff and you should always refer to the updated information when in doubt if an item is disallowed.
The Blacklist is published in Schedule 1 of Part 12 of the Scottish Drug Tariff and contains a list of items including medicines and/or specific brands of medicines which should not be prescribed or dispensed on NHS prescriptions.
The Selected List Scheme (SLS)
The Selected List Scheme includes drugs, medicines and other substances which should only be prescribed for certain conditions under the circumstances listed in Part 12 Schedule 2 of the Drug Tariff.
Prescribers must endorse prescriptions for these products ‘SLS’ both on the electronic message and paper scripts. If the ‘SLS’ endorsement is missing, the prescription should not be dispensed as it will not be passed for payment by P&CFS. Instead it should be returned to the prescriber to be amended. Please note that the SLS endorsement cannot be added by the dispenser.
Part 9 of the Drug Tariff provides a list of the chemical reagents which may be ordered by authorised prescribers. The items in this section that can’t be prescribed on a GP10(N) by Nurse Prescribers, are indicated by the symbol ‘Nx’.
The following items are disallowed chemical reagents and will not be passed for payment. These are most commonly found prescribed on GP10A Stock Order Forms.
Please see our section on Stock Order Forms for more information.
General dental practitioners may only prescribe items included in Part 8A of the Dental Practitioner Formulary (DPF) of the Drug Tariff on Form GP14. When ordering items included in their formulary, dentists must use the title which appears in the formulary. For example, prescriptions for Colgate Duraphat toothpaste would not be passed for payment, however generic Sodium Fluoride toothpaste is accepted.
Please note:
Most Commonly Disallowed Items on GP14 Forms
Please find a list of the most commonly disallowed items on a dental GP14 Form.
From our analysis of six months of data (January – June 2018), the largest number of rejected items were disallowed as the appliance is not listed in the Drug Tariff.
Parts 2 - 5 of the Scottish Drug Tariff provides a list of dressings and appliances that may be ordered by authorised prescribers on the appropriate prescribing lists of Health Boards, against a prescription.
The items in these parts that may not be prescribed on Form GP10(N) by Nurse Prescribers are indicated by the symbol `Nx’.
The supply of any other appliance or dressing not in Parts 2 - 5 will not be passed for payment by P&CFS.
In general, if an item is allowed on a GP10 it is also allowed on GP10A but there are a few exceptions. Please refer to the Stock Orders section.
It is important to check the size of the dressing or appliance ordered. Some items are only allowed in certain widths, lengths, etc. e.g. Inadine 10cm x 10cm is disallowed but Inadine 9.5cm x 9.5cm is allowed and is in Part 2 of the Drug Tariff.
Please be mindful that dressings are mainly held on file as singles. To ensure that accurate reimbursement occurs please check that the prescribed quantity reflects what was dispensed.
Stoma appliances are no longer published in the Drug Tariff but can be found in a separate section – Stoma Supplies.
This list contains items of appliances which are disallowed on NHS prescription forms in Scotland unless specified.
The formulary available to the pharmacist includes all Pharmacy (P) and General Sales List (GSL) medicines that are not blacklisted, dressings and appliances from Part 2 of the Drug Tariff, selected items from Part 3 of the Tariff, such as bug busting kits, and any Prescription Only Medicines (POMs) agreed suitable and which are underpinned by a series of core Patient Group Direction (PGDs).
Remember when prescribing under the Minor Ailment Scheme:
Most Commonly Disallowed Items on MAS (CP2) Forms
Please find a list of most commonly disallowed items on a CP2 Form.
Vermox on MAS
Several Health Board minor ailment formularies recommend Mebendazole 100mg tablets for the treatment of threadworm. We are seeing an increasing number of minor ailment forms disallowed where Vermox has been prescribed or dispensed. As it is a POM it is not allowed on MAS. Please also take care in the product selection using your PMR as we have spoken to a number of pharmacies where Mebendazole has been prescribed generically but Vermox has been selected for dispensing and therefore has been disallowed.
Please note the following are not allowed on CP2 Forms:
There are two different specifications of Nurse Prescriber – Standard and Supplementary.
Supplementary Nurses (Independent/Supplementary) may prescribe any Item Drug/Appliance including certain Controlled Drugs.
Standard Nurses (Community Nurses and Health Visitors) may only prescribe items included in the Nurse Prescriber Formulary (NPF), Part 8B of the Drug Tariff on Form GP10N.
*The most commonly disallowed dressings for a Standard Nurse include (this does not apply to Supplementary Nurses prescribers where the relevant sections of the Drug Tariff should be checked):
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*Please note this is not a comprehensive list and all dressings in Part 2 of the Drug Tariff are allowed to be prescribed on Form GP10(N) by Nurse Prescribers, except those indicated by the symbol ‘Nx’.
In general, if an item is allowed on Form GP10 it is also allowed on Form GP10A. There are however, a limited number of items which may only be supplied on Stock Order Forms.
These are:
Most Commonly Disallowed Items on Stock Order Forms
Please find a list of most commonly disallowed items on Stock Order Forms.
Other Items not Allowed on GP10A Forms:
GP10A Forms and Quantity
We have seen an increase in the number of issues where quantities being claimed and paid differ on GP10A Stock Order Forms submitted to Practitioner Services. If you receive a stock order for dressings, please note most dressings are held on file at Practitioner Services as a single dressing (as held in the Drug Tariff). If a single number of dressing is prescribed, please ensure this is what is supplied and claimed. We have found instances where contractors are giving this quantity as number of boxes instead of numbers of individual dressings resulting in significant loss.
If clarification of the required quantity is required, do speak to the issuing surgery and if the quantity to supply is different to that prescribed, please endorse appropriately with a PC endorsement.
Contractors are responsible for ensuring all their pharmacists who are using the National Patient Group Direction for the Urgent Supply of Repeat Medicines and Appliances have completed the PGD Authorisation Form from the pack at each update and sent it to the Primary Care Pharmacy Department of the Health Board they are working in.
Contractors who fail to ensure the completed authorisation form is returned to the Health Board should be aware that the CPUS prescriptions will not be reimbursed for the products supplied.
CPUS Prescriptions
Please Note:
Most Commonly Disallowed Items on CPUS Forms
Please find a list of most commonly disallowed items on CPUS Forms. Remember you should always refer to the latest version of the PGD.
You can find more information here on Unscheduled Care.