Medical Equipment

(asked on 24th February 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the ease with which small and medium-sized businesses can obtain a dispensing appliance contractor licence; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 3rd March 2015

There are no licensing requirements to open a private dispensing appliance contractor business. NHS England is responsible for determining whether a dispensing appliance contractor should be granted the right to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Such determinations can generally be appealed to the Family Health Services Appeal Unit of the NHS Litigation Authority.

The Department keeps the operation of the relevant NHS regulations governing the right to provide NHS pharmaceutical services under regular review with NHS England, the NHS Litigation Authority and contractors’ representatives, as appropriate. We are not aware of any significant issues regarding the impact of these arrangements on small and medium-sized businesses offering continence products nor on the adoption of innovation in the NHS.

Reticulating Splines