Confirmed minutes of 10th October 2002

PRESCRIPTION PRICING AUTHORITY

At a Public meeting of the Prescription Pricing Authority held in Wedgwood Suite, The Assembly Room, Newcastle upon Tyne, on Thursday 10 October 2002, there were:

PRESENT

IN ATTENDANCE

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Dr M Ali and Mr J Norman.

2 REVIEW OF 2001-2002

The Chief Executive presented a review of the PPA's performance and volumes processed during the year.

An outline of the core business process was presented.

Specifically highlighted were the services delivered to pharmacists, PCTs, StHAs, GPs, NHS, Patients and Government and the PPA's performance in relation to those services.

A summary of the PPA strategy for the future was identified as:

• receipt of unambiguous prescription data electronically;
• processing of that data electronically;
• provision of an increasing range of prescribing information services electronically rather than on paper.
  

3 ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 2001-2002

Mr Smith presented the performance of the administration and pharmaceutical services accounts for 2001-2002.

Particular items to note during the year were the reduction in Category D funding, redundancy and early retirement costs, prescription growth of 6% as opposed to the predicted 3.5% and the achievement of efficiency savings of £750,000. The Administration Account received an unqualified opinion.

The Pharmaceutical Account was qualified on the basis of the level of prescription charges collected against the estimated number uncollected through evasion. The size of uncollected income was significant and not in accordance with the wishes of Parliament.

Mr Smith highlighted that for the eighteenth consecutive year the PPA had broken even on cash limits.

4 ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION PFRESCRIPTIONS (ETP) PILOTS

Mr Ball highlighted the project goals, the solutions identified, stakeholders and the potential benefits as a result of ETP.

A procurement exercise was conducted and three separate consortium were identified to become involved in the pilots. These were:

• Schlumber/Sema
• Transcript
• Pharmacy2U

Each consortium had a unique business model. From April 2001 a process of beta-testing was conducted and a six month plus pilot run commenced. An evaluation of each pilot would be completed by December 2002.

Alongside the pilots the PPA has developed a hybrid model that incorporated all the features of each of the pilots.

Mr Ball highlighted the interdependencies, PPA testing strategy and the systems developed at the PPA to assist the pilots. Also highlighted were the activities and decisions required by all key stakeholders before moving to full rollout of ETP.

5 ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING INFORMATION

Mr Ball presented an overview of the impact of Shifting the Balance of Power on the PPA information systems.

Highlighted were the enhanced information services that had been delivered during the year such as 36 months access to ePACT.net. New services included electronic schedules for pharmacy multiples, ePACT.net for Community Nurses and a Hospital ePACT.net service.

6 GROWTH IN VOLUME AND COST OF PRESCRIPTIONS

Mrs Dalton advised that predictions on prescriptions growth were around 6% although in the year to March 2002 this was 5.4%. Prescription costs had grown by 11% in the year to March 2002 compared to 4% in the year to March 2001.

Highlighted were the changes in prescription volume and cost for each of the therapeutic groups. Analysis also showed that prescribing in multiples of 28 continued and prescribing by nurse prescribers continued to increase.

7 NHS PRIMARY CARE DRUG DICTIONARY (PCDD)

Mrs Dalton outlined the development of the Primary Care Drug Dictionary and the Project Management. The PCDD includes categorical information related to medicinal products prescribed in primary care.

Summarised was the progress to date on the delivery of the model. The PPA was on target to deliver the model by 31 December 2002.

8 QUESTION SESSION

The Chairman thanked Officers for the presentations and opened the floor to questions.

1. Mr Jason Kilby, Leciestershire Shared Services, acknowledged that key service delivery dates were available a month in advance on the PPA web site. Mr Kilby enquired when long-term delivery dates would be available. The Chief Executive advised that the delivery dates throughout the year were included in the PPA Business Plan posted on the web site.
   
   
2. Professor Ian Jones, Portsmouth University, congratulated the PPA on the excellent service it provided. Professor Jones enquired whether there had been any change in the policy relating to prescription switching and whether the current figure of those switched was available. Mrs Dalton advised that the DH policy on prescription switching remained unchanged. Information was provided on the payment schedules issued to pharmacists and a dedicated help line had been set up to assist with enquiries. Mr McDonald advised that information on the number of prescriptions switched was available on the PPA web site
   
   
3. Mr Kilby advised that he worked for a Shared Service provider incorporating six PCTs and as such had an individual access identifier for each PCT. Would it be possible to have one access identifier that covered all the six PCTs and allowed interrogation of the data at the same time? Mr Ball responded that this had been considered but would utilise too much power on the system and the performance of the system for other users would reduce. Research had been conducted on this matter and would be sent to Mr Kilby.
   
   
4. Mr Alan Tweedie, PSNC representative, congratulated the PPA on its excellent service and the presentations delivered. Mr Tweedie asked Mr Smith to clarify his statement in the presentation that it was a statutory offence to overspend on budgets. Mr Smith clarified that for the PPA its allocation is the sum received from the DH. The budget is what is shared to Directors to operate their departments. The term "resource limit" refers to the allocation of resource from the DH and it is that which it is an offence to overspend.
   
   
5. Professor David Johns, Chairman, North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategy Health Authority, advised that he had reviewed the graphs in the Annual Report. Was anything being done to provide any other demographic data to assist PCTs and StHAs? Mrs Dalton appreciated the requirement to provide additional information to assist local interpretation. The PPA were working closely with the DH, Prescribing Support Unit and Keele University to produce reports that included such data and were also reviewing data sets produced by other organisations to see whether these data sets could be further utilised by the PPA. Professor Johns advised that he would provide any support at a national level that would assist in this data being made available.
   
   
6. Mr Kilby stated that he regularly accessed the information systems and had problems with the functionality of the systems. Mr Kilby enquired whether there was any process to test systems before they were implemented. Mr Ball responded that user groups are established to test systems prior to implementation. Mr Ball invited Mr Kilby to become part of the user group and would send him the relevant information.