NHS Prescription Penalty Charge Notice

888eyeball

Hi, The NHS are claiming that l have collected a prescription which was not covered by my prepayment certificate (PPC), due to the digital information that Boots have sent to them, ie not the original copy of the prescription that l signed for.
I get a repeat prescription on a monthly basis, however during the month of August my PPC ran out half way through the month, which was when Boots sent me a text to advise that my prescription was ready to collect, l decided to not collect the prescription till September when my new PPC would start, which l did on the 3rd September.
Now into December l receive a penalty charge notice from the NHS claiming that l have collected a prescription whilst my PPC was expired in August? I immediately called the Boots branch where l collected the prescription and spoke a pharmacist (Kanar), who said that all prescription are sent off at the end of each month, l then mentioned the Prescription services number and she said she did not know who they were, l then pressed her more on the matter, only then did say she would call them up to get a copy of my prescription, although she sounded reluctant to do so. l asked her about CCTV footage in the store that would prove when l picked it up, and she said the footage is deleted every month. Finally, l asked for the name of the store manager as her attitude was really not helping the situation, which she was reluctant to give at first.
Has anyone been in this situation, and if so can you advise what would be the best course of action to take. Also l remember singing the prescription but lm not sure if l dated it?

pmduk

Why on earth wouldn't you have dated it, that would have solved this? You need to contact the NHSBSA and tell them what you've told us here.

Your problem might be if the charge relates to when the prescription is made up, or when it is collected. So I can't say how this will go for you, I'd stress that you were deliberately leaving it until Sept to collect the prescription in order not to get into this mess.

Personally, I don't trust a chemist to order my meds for me - Boots have left me with only emergency supplies too often.

swingaloo

The date that you collected it is not relevant.

Your prepayment certificate would have needed to be valid on the date you took the prescription into the chemist and signed the back of it.

pmduk

swingaloo wrote: »

The date that you collected it is not relevant.

Your prepayment certificate would have needed to be valid on the date you took the prescription into the chemist and signed the back of it.

The OP didn't, The Pharmacy obtained the prescription. AIUI, it was only signed upon collection in September.

unforeseen

It is the collection date that is relevant for PPC validity. See https://contactcentreservices.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/selfnhsukokb/AskUs_HWHC/en-gb/6426/general/49961/what-date-is-used-to-determine-whether-my-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc-covers-my-nhs

swingaloo

Sorry, my mistake. I didn't read properly and took it that the prescription had been signed to say a valid certificate was held when the prescription was handed in.

unforeseen

Even if it had been, it is still the collection date that is relevant and that should have been recorded in the pharmacy's system as the closure date.

pmduk

Hopefully, that should solve the OP's problem. But a lesson to us all. Date the damn things!

photome

pmduk wrote: »

Hopefully, that should solve the OP's problem. But a lesson to us all. Date the damn things!

The Op says it is due to the digital info sent by boots. Would dating the original help. I don’t know how boots send that digital info wether it is a scanned script or manually input

pmduk

The NHSBSA can access the original paper script with the signed declaration. (knowledge gleaned from similar posts) The planned new system of checking entitlement at the time of collection would have avoided this, I presume.

888eyeball

l did ask if the NHS penalty charges department could pull up the origonal, and they told me l had to take it up with Boots as they can only see the digital information only.