Prescription Separation

England Only

From April 2010, dispensing contractors in England must use red separators provided by NHS prescription services to separately sort and bundle NHS paper prescriptions containing:

  • Items for which broken bulk is claimed.
  • Single items with a net ingredient cost of £100.00 or more.
  • Prescription items that have been extemporaneously prepared.
  • Named patient items.
  • Items for which an out of pocket expense claim is made.

Functionality is included in Pharmacy Manager to identify such products to help ensure your prescriptions are separated correctly.

Configuration

To enable or disable this functionality:

  1. From the Pharmacy Manager Toolbar, select Tools - System Settings - Pharmacy Details.

  2. Select the Dispensing tab and then the Printing tab:

  3. Tick Indicate Prescription Separation to enable prescription separation, or, alternatively, remove the tick to disable the feature:

  4. Select OK to save and exit.

Application

To aid identification of prescriptions that are affected by this rule, if you have chosen to print endorsements, the word Separate is printed at the top of the left hand side of the prescription above the area used for the pharmacy stamp.

Furthermore, the word Separate displays on the top left of the Dispensary screen when you have selected the item & quantity to be dispensed. This acts as a useful reminder when you have not chosen to print endorsements:

Note - If you decide to cancel a broken-bulk claim when alerted, the guidance to separate the prescription disappears.

When dispensing an item that requires the prescription to be separated, for example, the net ingredient cost is equal to £100.00 or more, the window displaying stock and cost detail displays SEPARATE.

Note - This feature does not apply to EPS R2 prescriptions or private prescriptions. It only covers NHS paper prescriptions and EPS R1 prescriptions.
Note – To print this topic select Print in the top right corner and follow the on-screen prompts.