Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on (a) cashflow, (b) income and (c) patient access to medication of practices of receiving re-imbursement monthly rather than quarterly for each prescription submitted.

Contractors are already paid monthly. The full payment timetable for community pharmacy contractors is detailed in Clause 5C Part I of the Drug Tariff, and on the Schedule of Payments that contractors receive each month.

In 2021, in recognition of the improved automation of the claims process, the timing of the advanced payment was brought forward by 20 days to improve cash flow.

Contractors receive an advance payment early in the month. This covers an estimate of the full income from claims submitted for the previous month. A reconciliation payment follows two months later, when all the claims have been fully processed.