[Titch]

Queried similar issue with society in past - can hospital inpatient scripts be dispensed as private scripts in community pharmacy.

Answer from DOH was NO!!

Reason - patient been seen by an NHS doctor for a consultation on NHS time therefore cannot be classed as a private patient at the same time.

I would suspect the same arguement would apply here - yes I agree it's political.

Likewise, there have been GPs reprimanded (not sure who by) for giving patients who pay for their script NHS and private scripts for the same item(s) and tellling them to use whichever is the cheaper.

There used to be something in the front of the NPA guide to the Drug Tariff (I think it was that NPA book anyway!) that stated something about scripts being NHS property.