12/01/2023
Walter Lloyd Pharmacy
Prescription Delivery Service Charges
For many years community pharmacies have provided a free prescription delivery service. This service is NOT funded by the NHS but pharmacies provide it out of the money we are paid for dispensing.
In April 2022 the Welsh Government changed our contract arrangements which involved a cut in the money we are paid for dispensing prescriptions with a shift towards clinical services. Whilst this is a positive in that we can provide more clinical services to patients who can be seen in person it is no longer financially viable to continue delivering prescriptions free of charge.
We have reluctantly made the decision to introduce a charge for prescription delivery as from 1st March 2023.
We have tried to keep the charge to a minimum and have decided on 3 options for delivery.
1. An annual fee of £40 which will cover unlimited deliveries for 12 months.
2. In view of the cost burden to patients of a one-off fee of £40 we offer the option of 12 monthly payments of £4
3. A one-off delivery charge of £5 per delivery for those who do not require regular deliveries.
4. Alternatively, patients will still have the option of collecting prescriptions from the pharmacy if they do not wish to pay for delivery and we can continue to collect your prescriptions from your surgery and have them ready in the pharmacy for collection.
There are a few points we would like to emphasise,
- The prescription delivery charge applies to each patient and not to an address because we cannot guarantee prescriptions for two people living at the same address will come out of the surgery at the same time. Similarly, we notice numerous prescriptions for a patient may well come out of the surgery on different days. We have no control over when scripts are signed and made available by the surgeries.
- We cannot guarantee delivery days or times. We will continue to attempt to get deliveries out as quickly as possible depending on volume and we always prioritise antibiotics and end of life medication.
- Patients should note that if they opt for the £5 charge per delivery then if there is an item missing from the prescription received from the surgery and this comes out the next day then the charge will apply again. However, if we owe you an item or part item due to our not having sufficient stock then there will be no charge for delivering the owing.
- Failed deliveries are often an issue and we endeavour to attempt to re-deliver if we get no reply. We will however be restricting this to two delivery attempts. If after two failed attempts we have no reply then the prescription will be returned to the pharmacy for collection. If you are not going to be home then please advise whether or not we can leave the delivery with a neighbour or in a dedicated safe place bearing in mind that some items prevent us from leaving the delivery unattended.
