Endorsements on Prescriptions

  • England

    • FS - To indicate an item is being prescribed as a sexual health treatment of a Sexually transmitted infection (STI) and should therefore be issued free of charge, tick FS. A reminder re the use of the Free Supply Endorsement displays. Select OK to close the reminder and continue if appropriate:

      On a paper prescription, FS prints after the item name.

      On an electronic prescription, FS displays in the endorsement column.

      Training Tip - Remember to remove an FS endorsement when you reissue or reauthorise an item if it is no longer relevant.
  • England, Wales and Northern Ireland

    An endorsement prints on the prescription for each drug that is marked as either:

    • Selective List Scheme (SLS), for example, Sildenafil tabs
    • ACBS, for example, Ensure Plus
    • Contraception, for example, Micronor
  • Scotland

    An endorsement prints on the prescription for each drug that is marked as either:

    • Selective List Scheme (SLS), for example, Sildenafil tabs
    • ACBS, for example, Ensure Plus

The endorsement goes after the drug name:

For NHS prescribing, certain items can only be prescribed as NHS prescriptions if they comply with specific criteria. Such items are endorsed with 'SLS' on the prescription form. Vision 3 automatically does this for you.

However, some items which require SLS endorsement belong to more than one action group, for example, Clobazam belongs to both Control of Epilepsy and Anxiolytics action groups. Vision 3 endorses the prescription with 'SLS' regardless of the action group. This is because SLS items for NHS prescribing are linked to the drug item and not the action group selected in Vision 3. Where prescribing falls outside of the SLS regulations, the item may not be prescribed on the NHS. If prescribing items listed in Part XVIIIB of the Drug Tariff for conditions other than the stated purpose, the prescriber must manually amend the medication item to a private prescription.

  • ACBS
  • Contraception - this includes 'CC'
Note - To print this topic select Print in the top right corner and follow the on-screen prompts.