Post by kickingfrog on Jul 7, 2011 13:43:46 GMT
Re: ACBS product
Originally Posted by wenyiyin
So does everyone agree that if such items like health foods or supplements, if they are not listed in the Drug Tariff anywhere at all, they are automatically disallowed on NHS?
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1. Assuming that the prescriber has the appropriate prescribing rights (ie. community nurses can only prescribe certain things).......ANY food, drug, food supplement, herbal medicine, homeopathic remedy, toiletry or cosmetic may be prescribed on an NHS prescription UNLESS the product is listed in Part XVIIIA of the Drug Tariff (the blacklist) OR the criteria set out in the Tariff for prescribing products listed in Part XVIIIB of the Drug Tariff (the Selected List) are not met. .......
....The Borderline Substances list provides advice to prescribers as to which foods and toiletry preparations are considered to be appropriate for NHS prescribing.....and for which conditions they should be used. Prescribers are quite free to ignore these recommendations if they wish, although they might occasionally be questioned by the PCT. It is quite possible, for example, for a doctor to prescribe an M&S luxuary chocolate cake - since this food is not blacklisted the pharmacy would be reimbursed at the endorsed price.
When prescribing ACBS-recommended products, doctors are advised to endorse ACBS in order to demonstrate that the product is being used appropriately. Even so, if the ACBS endorsement is missing for a product on the borderline substances list, pharmacies can still dispense the prescription and will be reimbursed as normal. (Unlike the ACBS endorsement, the SLS endorsement is NOT optional, watch out for this on handwritten scripts for Viagra, Cialis and Levitra - if the SLS endorsement is missing you will not be paid). The SLS endorsement can only be added by the prescriber, not by the pharmacist!! 
6. The Drug Tariff is not relevent to private prescriptions (including private dental prescriptions), nor is it relevent to prescriptions dispensed at hospital pharmacies. A doctor may prescribe any product on a private prescription except Schedule I controlled drugs eg. LSD, MDMA etc. Doctors now have to use a special prescription form (FP10PCD) for private CD scripts (schedule 2 and 3 only, not 4 and 5). Dentists can prescribe virtually anything privately, the dental formulary is relevent to NHS scripts only.
7. The PSNC website provides a lot of useful information regarding what is, and what is not, allowed on NHS prescription. It also provides useful information on the differing prescribing rights of various non-medical prescribers eg. community nurses and their formulary, dentists and their NHS formulary etc.
I hope this has been helpful,
Bobbin
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www.pharmacy-forum.co.uk/general-pharmacy-topics/2456-acbs-product.html