Disallowed dental prescriptions cost pharmacies

A total of 5,274 items prescribed by NHS dentists were disallowed by the NHS Business Services Authority (HSBSA) between July 2025 and June 2026, Dentistry has reported.

This cost pharmacies an estimated £50,000. Disallowed items are those pharmacies may have already supplied, but for which the will not receive reimbursement.

Overall, the NHSBSA disallowed approximately 32,000 prescriptions from all sources over the same period.

Items NHS dentists are permitted to prescribe are determined by the the Dental Practitioners’ Formulary and may catch dentists out – for example, amoxicillin capsules can be prescribed, amoxicillin tablets can’t.

Suraj Shah, drug tariff and reimbursement manager at Community Pharmacy England, talking to Dentistry said: “The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS should tidy up the formulries to remove products that are no longer available, and reflect the names as they appear on NHS systems. In addition, both formularies should be updated to reflect latest prescribing guidelines.”

He added: “Pharmacies, similarly to NHS dentists, are going through a lot of financial pressure – money is tight. Anything we can do to help avoid such risks is always welcome.

“Raising awareness of the items not permitted for prescribing on FP10D forms will help NHS dentists and pharmacy teams reduce prescribing and dispensing errors, respectively.”