Key Summary
- Between July 2025 and June 2026, there were approximately 32,000 disallowed prescription items.
- Around 7,000 items were disallowed because they were not permitted to be prescribed by the dentist or community nurse prescriber.
- If a prescriber does not hold the appropriate qualifications to prescribe a particular drug, pharmacy teams should not dispense them.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has informed Community Pharmacy England (CPE) that a high percentage of disallowed items dispensed by community pharmacies were from prescriptions issued by NHS dentists and Community Practitioner Nurse Prescribers.
They were either drugs not listed in the Dental Practitioners’ Formulary (DPF) or missing from the Nurse Prescribers’ Formulary (NPF).
The arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that between July 2025 and June 2026, there were approximately 32,000 disallowed prescription items in total.
Of these, 22% (around 7,000 items) were disallowed because these items were not permitted to be prescribed by the dentist or community nurse prescriber who issued the NHS prescription.
Before dispensing an NHS prescription issued by a NHS dentist or Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber, pharmacy teams should check whether the items ordered are listed in their respective formularies and the prescriber holds the appropriate qualifications to prescribe them.
If a prescriber does not hold the appropriate qualifications to prescribe a particular drug, pharmacy teams should not dispense them and the patient should be referred back to the appropriate prescriber.
Outdated drugs
Since it has been several years since the DPF and NPF were developed, many listed products are no longer available and should be deleted from their respective formularies.
CPE has requested the DHSC to review and update the products listed in both formularies to reflect the latest prescribing guidelines and product availability.
Pharmacy owners are being encouraged to check their disallowed items history on the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal to identify any unpaid items and check the reasons why the NHSBSA turned it down.
If they feel any item has been incorrectly disallowed, pharmacy owners should submit a challenge to the NHSBSA to investigate the issue.
