FREE MEDICINES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24604, 12 May 1941, Page 6

FREE MEDICINES

THE NEW BENEFITS PROCEDURE EXPLAINED Medical practitioners have now received advice from the Health Department as to the procedure to be followed in giving effect to the free pharmaceutical service. The regulations cover the drugs listed in the British Pharmacopoeia and the British Pharmaceutical Codex, but do not include any preparation or substance (except insulin) that is prescribed in any medical prescription by reference to any trade-mark or trade name, or by reference to a particular maker; any serum, vaccine, or antitoxin; or any wine or spiritous liquor of a kind commonly sold by persons licensed to sell intoxicating liquors. Appliances, including dressings, are not the subject of benefits under the regulations.

"The specfic provisions of the Act in relations to pharmaceutical benefits contemplated the supply of all drugs, medicines, etc., ordered by medical practitioners in the course of providing medical benefits for their patients," states the official advice received by the doctors. " The present scheme, however, limits considerably the classes of pharmaceutical supplies that are to be the subject of benefit, and at the same time makes the benefits applicable in respect of prescriptions signed on or after May 5, whether or not a medical practitioner has agreed to provide medical benefits."

Referring to the exclusion of proprietary preparations or substances from the scope of the benefits, the circular states that there is special provision in the drug tariff affecting these classes. If any proprietary substance or preparation is of ths same chemical definition as the " official " substance or nreparation, the chemist will in most cases be entitled to receive the prescribed amount payable in respect of the official equivalent. The customer in some cases may therefore be called upon to pay either the full price or part of the price of a proprietary substance, although the chemist's dispensing fee and a charge (if any) for a coiv tainer would usually be payable out of the fund.

Every prescription coming within range of the benefits has to bear the name and address of the person for whom it has been prescribed.

The Department appeals for the cooperation of medical practitioners in ensuring economy in prescribing, compatible, of course, with the interests of the patients," concludes the circular. "Practitioners generally will doubtless appreciate the difficulty in assuring regular supplies of drugs, etc., from abroad, and the need for building up stocks of medical supplies to nreet any emergency that may arise."