Submit and retrieve prescriptions
Published on 18 June 2024
Find information on prescription submissions, as well as retrieving copies of your submitted prescriptions.
Relocation of Scanning Services
A reminder of an important change regarding the delivery of prescription forms effective from May 2024. All submissions must be dispatched to our new scanning centre at the following address:
Practitioner Services Divisions Scanning Centre, NHS National Services Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9EB
Please be aware that the previous delivery address at 3 Bain Square, Livingston, has ceased to provide scanning services. It is crucial that you refrain from sending any prescription forms to this address as they will not be received. Failure to comply could result in a breach of data protection legislation if patient-identifiable special category data is lost in transit or cause a delay or non-fulfilment of your payment.
As per our existing procedure, forms must be submitted by the fifth calendar day of each month. If these dates fall on a weekend or a public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day. We cannot guarantee that late submissions will be processed within the same month’s batch of prescriptions, and this could cause a delay or non-fulfilment and reduction in your expected payment. Late submissions that cannot be processed will be carried over to the following month’s scanning and batch processing, along with new submissions. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to submit your prescriptions on time to avoid payment delays. All other instructions remain unchanged.
Issues which are negatively impacting the new scanners
Following the launch of the relocated Scanning Service, several issues have been identified that affect: the scanned image; the quality of the data that is required to be captured to enable a prescription to be automated or processed, or even halt the scanners and detrimentally impact the productivity of the scanning operation.
The Scanning Service at PSD receives around 6 to 6.5 million prescriptions each month. Given the volume of submissions, even a small percentage of prescriptions submitted with staples, paper clips, tape, tears, etc. can mean significant delays to the scanning process.
GP Practices are also being contacted to request them to take action at source to prevent some of these issues from occurring, and advising them of the guidance being provided to you so that any requests for re-prints do not come as a surprise to them and they understand the rationale.
1. Faint Ink
On receipt of a prescription that has faint ink and not fully legible, please ask for a re-print as the paper prescription is still the trigger for payment and ICR is required to merge the paper prescription with the electronic claim. If not, the prescription is sent for re-scan or keyed manually from paper and this has an impact on the timeliness of your payment.
2. Red Ink
Please ask any prescriber for a re-print if there is red ink, printed or written, within a prescription as this is dropped by ICR, sent for re-scan or keyed manually from paper and impacts the timeliness of your payment.
3. Staples
New Scanners fitted with magnetic detectors, are sensitive to staples attached to prescriptions or supporting documentation and results in stopping the scanning in mid-flow as shown in the following video clip. This clip shows what happens when a staple is detected by the scanner. The operator now needs to pause scanning, perform various checks on the system and carefully separate stapled prescriptions before they can continue. This slows down the process significantly, will delay your and others’ claims being processed and ultimately could delay payments to contractors.
4. Patient Notes part of the prescription form
In some instances, the patient notes part of the prescription form has been folded over and not detached from the prescription itself. PSD does not require the repeat part of the prescription form and requests that these are removed and do not form part of the prescription submission. The impact of this is that if the notes page is not removed and folded over, when these are scanned, we may not capture an image of the rear side of the prescription with a patient signature for Scheule 2 & 3 controlled drugs, which is a mandatory requirement as per circular pca2022-p-27.pdf and required for NHS Board Controlled Drug Accountable Officers.
Best practices for prescription submission
There are certain best practices to adhere to when it comes to prescription submission.
They include:
- ensure your pharmacy details are clearly printed or stamped in the top right hand side of all prescriptions
- keep separate GP10A Stock order form with invoices/PC70s etc
- the use of staples, paper clips, sticky notes, or tape in your prescriptions will jam the new scanners, so please ensure these are removed from your prescriptions to avoid delays to your payments
- tightly secure prescriptions with elastic bands before placing in transit bags or boxes
- use 2 bags if you have more than 6,000 forms; don't overfill the bag or use the same bag if opened. Call Community Pharmacy Scotland on 0131 467 7766 for more bags.
- include your fully completed GP34 Declaration form
A training video on how to improve the pharmacy claiming and payment process is now available.
We cannot guarantee that late submission of prescription batches will be processed with that month's prescriptions. Our focus is to process those submitted on time. Only if there is capacity will late submissions be processed in that month. Those that cannot be processed due to late arrival will be prioritised for processing in the following month’s batch preparation and scanning schedule. We urge everyone to submit prescriptions on time to avoid delays to your payment.
Should you have any further enquiries, please contact the PSD Scanning Centre on 01506 705125 or email: nss.p-cfs-scanningservices@nhs.scot
Community Pharmacy Scotland Courier Dates
Access courier dates for prescription submission, preceded by the month in question.
Retrieve a copy of a submitted prescription
Practitioner Services are happy to provide dispensing contractors with a scanned copy of prescriptions submitted for processing.
To obtain a copy of a scanned prescription, please contact 01506 705101 for a retrieval request form.