SCOTLAND'S family doctors are set to join their colleagues throughout
the UK in opposing Government plans to involve them in an attempt to
crack down on prescription fraud.
The British Medical Association has confirmed that its GPs' committee
is expected soon to tell Health Minister Gerry Malone that GPs will not
co-operate with proposals intended to make the detection of prescription
fraud easier and cheaper.
The Department of Health says that only about 30% of patients have to
pay for prescriptions, but despite this low proportion, abuse of the
system is commonplace. The Government says prescription fraud is costing
the Exchequer about #30m a year.
The current #4.75 prescription charge raises #280m a year towards the
annual NHS drugs bill.
Health Ministers hope that family doctors can be persuaded to provide
information to help reduce fraud.
But Dr John Garner, BMA (Scotland) general medical services committee
chairman, said he was concerned at the plans to involve GPs in such a
scheme.
He made his comments ahead of claims made today in the association's
magazine, BMA News Review, that the NHS executive is considering
introducing bar codes on prescription forms.
The magazine claims the scheme is part of Health Secretary Virginia
Bottomley's crackdown on prescription fraud, announced earlier this
month at the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth.
The BMA claims the bar codes would include a record of certain patient
details such as age and reasons for exemption to help verify claims for
free medicines.
The association believes that it could lead to widespread breaches of
patient confidentiality and destroy the doctor-patient relationship if
it is not properly monitored and run.
Dr Ian Banks, a member of the BMA general medical services committee,
told the magazine: ''People are talking about including date of birth
and past medical history. That moves into the area of medical
confidentiality because the information would be going to Government
agencies, not just pharmacists.''
Dr Garner was not aware of the bar code proposal when contacted
yesterday although he did know of Mrs Bottomley's proposed crackdown on
prescription fraud.
He said: ''We are not condoning fraud in any way. However, our job is
to be the patient's advocate to get the best quality of health care from
the NHS, not to be seen as DSS policemen who decide on whether patients
are entitled to free prescriptions or not.''
A Department of Health spokesman in London would not be drawn on
whether the bar code proposal was likely to be implemented.
''We are still considering how we can take this matter forward and
will be looking at a number of different options to ensure that the
estimated #30m worth of prescription fraud is curtailed,'' he said.
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