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The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has criticised plans to make checks on free prescriptions tougher at the pharmacy counter.

BBC News reports that Health Minister Dan Poulter has said the government is determined to crack down on prescription fraud – and by 2018, a new database will be introduced in England to enable pharmacists to check a patient’s eligibility for free prescriptions before handing over any medication.

The move could save the NHS around £150 million annually, which would be ploughed back into NHS services.

However, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society says that making pharmacists responsible for checking a patient’s eligibility for a free prescription might harm patient trust.

Checks on patient eligibility for free prescriptions currently only takes place once the patient has signed the declaration on the reverse of the prescription – and the prescription has been dispensed.

However, the current system based on trust has resulted in an estimated 30m free prescriptions being wrongly claimed or dispensed every year, costing the NHS £237m every year.

Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Dr Keith Ridge said the proposals aim to strike a balance between collecting charges and providing care.

England is now the only country in the UK to charge for NHS prescriptions.

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